Police investigate string of smartphone thefts

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Police say it's becoming a problem in every part of the city--smartphone thefts.

Talk about bad luck. It was Oscar Golden's first day on the job at the South Street Verizon store when two men walked in and started snatching smartphones right off the display, according to police.

"Basically, the two clowns came in and broke the phones off and as soon as the alarm went they stumbled all over the ground and rolled out of the store," he told FOX 29.

Smartphones are easy targets. In the last month, three phone stores within 2 blocks on South Street have been hit--
the Verizon and the AT&T store.

FOX 29 showed the video to Adrianna who works at the T-mobile right across the street and she thinks the same men hit her store 3 weeks ago.

And it looked like a shopping spree at a Sprint store in the Northeast last week. Police say crooks stunned daytime shoppers by bursting in a taking every phone they could get their hands on.

But the laugh may be on them. You see most of the smartphones these men are getting aren't really smart at all. They're dummy demo phones--virtually worthless.

"They won't be able to use them or do anything with them. Actually, one is a plastic phone so they took nothing," Oscar explained.