this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Wouldn't it be easier to steal them in China? It's where most of them come from after all.
I'm guessing buyers specifically want non-Chinese devices, and stealing from individuals is easier than from a factory.
Seems like something you could accomplish with jailbreaking. Or perhaps a bit of soddering.
These devices aren't magic. Stealing and shipping phones at this scale halfway around the world seems inefficient to say the least.
But I guess organized criminals and their clients aren't always that smart.
It’s not about efficiency, it’s about it working. They don’t exactly need to do it at a price point because it’s a “price is what I say it is” kind of deal.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had guards armed with SMGs and full body armour guarding the shipments as they leave the factory.
Since Apple shrunk the packaging they could probably fit a million iPhones in one shipping container. Think how much that’d be worth!
There's a pixar film here where a phone get sent to the US, but misses it's manufacturer and like the one ring leaps from owner to thief to fence to reseller in china...