Amazon caught its employees stealing $592,000 worth iPhones in Spain

After an internal investigation, Amazon caught five of its employees stealing iPhones. The arrested group is accused of stealing $592,000 worth of iPhones from Amazon’s logistics center in Madrid, Spain. The company commenced an inquiry after noticing suspicious differences in ordered and the delivered weights. Because of its business model based on fulfillment centered, Amazon is prone to experience loss in revenues by theft incidents.

The demand and price of Apple products make them a hot commodity to sell, often illegally. In 2019 four Amazon employees stole $100,000 worth of Apple Watches and accessories from a fulfillment center in the United States. Previously, a man admitted to stealing 300 iPhones from CBP warehouse (Customs and Border Protection) in New Jersey in 2015.

Amazon Employees Steal over Half a Million Dollars Worth of iPhones

iPadizate reports that Amazon caught the black sheep at its facility after differing weight issues in the actual order and the delivered ones in some packages were highlighted. The company installed hidden cameras and caught the criminal group which was slipping iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models of the latest flagship smartphone series, by switching the ordered content at the last minute.

It is still unclear to whom the orders were sent, therefore, the police is not ruling out further arrests related to the incident. It is likely that this group of criminals is bigger than arrested thieves. At the time of arrest, miscreant employees had 10 iPhone in possession and a number of stickers with IMEI numbers which are presumed to be torn off the tampered shipments. The company has fired all five culprits who are in custody and awaiting trial.

Amazon is an authorized dealer of iPhones across the globe. Thus, its fulfillment centers carry many different models of the smartphone. Having said that, currently, the company is under antitrust investigation in Germany for its brandgating policy. The regulators have accused Amazon of deliberately stopping third-party dealers from selling Apple products in its digital stores. In its defense, the company maintains that the policy is only implemented to bar the selling of counterfeit products on its platform.