Another viral retail-theft video was making the rounds earlier this week, following a brazen Monday morning robbery caught on camera at the Apple Store on Bay Street in Emeryville.
The video, which shows a masked suspect ripping about 50 iPhones free of their security cables on several display tables at the store, was being used to denigrate Oakland and the lack of policing there, though Bay Street is, in fact, in Emeryville.
This is why stores in Oakland are shutting down and why you can't have nice things. pic.twitter.com/98DLSDwRtO
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 7, 2024
And the video also finishes with the suspect walking out the front door to a waiting vehicle, going past a parked Emeryville Police Department cruiser, prompting much outcry on X and elsewhere about police doing nothing.
Well, Emeryville police have now done something, and the suspect seen in the video is now in custody at Santa Rita Jail, they say. And, Emeryville police say that no officers were in the area at the time of the Monday incident — the cruiser was just parked there, for some reason.
As KPIX reports, the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Mims of Berkeley, was one of three people arrested Wednesday following another robbery at the Apple Store on Fourth Street in Berkeley earlier that day.
Mims is being held on suspicion of three counts of conspiracy, three counts of burglary, three counts of grand theft, and three counts of organized retail theft. The iPhones from the Monday haul alone, police say, were valued at $49,230.
Details about the other two suspects were not made public, possibly because they are juveniles.
The arrests were conducted by Emeryville police officers, along with officers from the Berkeley PD and the CHP.
This Bay Street Apple Store has been a recent favorite target of thieves, apparently. Police said there have been four grand thefts at the store since January 19.
These arrest come amid a week in which Governor Gavin Newsom has deployed 120 CHP officers to Alameda County to aid in fighting crime in Oakland and elsewhere.
On Thursday, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Newsom announced the deployment of a small army of states attorneys to the county as well, in order to help investigate and prosecute crime.
"The East Bay is my home, and I'm committed to ensuring that the people of Oakland can live and work in a safe community," Bonta said in a statement. "The California Department of Justice has legal and law enforcement expertise to bring to bear as we work collaboratively to bring bad actors to justice."
