Apple Stores in US Temporarily Close Again, In Response to Store Looting Across George Floyd Rioters

Image via Business Insider

Following a few days over the George Floyd protests across the United States, Apple has decided to close its stores again until Tuesday. Thousands of protesters looted Apple Stores in Carnegie Library at DC, Fashion Square, and Waterfront at Scottsdale, Arizona, Union Square in San Francisco, California, Pioneer Place at Portland, Oregon, Walnut Street at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and The Grove at Los Angeles, California. Many of the stores in the Los Angeles County and other states are still shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak and reopening laws, but that does not stop the protestors from looting out iPhones, Macs, and iPads. There is also an Apple Premium Reseller named MelroseMAC in Los Angeles on the street of Melrose Avenue, which is also looted from the downtown LA protests on Saturday night.

All of the protesters and looters snagged clusters of Apple products, carried out large boxes of iMacs and Mac Pros, took all the iOS devices and Macs off the tables, and fractured the floor-to-ceiling windows that once stood out in the streets. The iPhones stolen from the protestors can not be used as their own iPhones, even in the newer locations that do not have security cables attached to the devices. All of the demo products they stole are alarmed by a store version of Find My, which puts the iPhone to Lost Mode and plays a loud sound with a message on the screen which reads, “Please return to Apple (location of the store). This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.” The screen comes up on the iPhone when it is outside the store premises by Location Services, which happened after looters snatched every single iPhone and iPad from the tables. This feature has been used in Apple Stores built or remodeled on or after 2016.

The stores will reopen Tuesday morning, back to its limited hours from the initial reopening of the stores. All stores that were raided over the weekend’s protests will be closed until further notice as repairs and cleaning up the extensive damage will take up to a week. This means that the affected locations will be reopening the next weekend. Stores still remaining closed until further notice before the protests will not reopen tomorrow.