Wave of phone store holdups in Quebec
There has been a wave of phone store holdups in Quebec. Apparently organized and professional teams hit a store, holding guns to workers’ heads, and make off with a swag of the latest hot models.
Minor update: I’ve switched to Helix, and had to bring my old cable modem back to a Videotron store today. There were a few people inside, but the door was locked and posted with explanations that if you wanted to enter you had to show several forms of photo ID. I don’t habitually walk around with ID on me and was expecting to be turned away, but I suppose being a woman of a certain age, unaccompanied by brigands, convinced the door guy that I really only did want to bring back a piece of equipment.
Chris 09:55 on 2022-05-27 Permalink
Hopefully we don’t descend into something like San Francisco, where there’s a huge increase in brazen robbery. And the security “goons” (tell us what you really think about them) often do nothing.
Ephraim 10:08 on 2022-05-27 Permalink
That’s a difficult sale… The stores would have the IMEI and would blacklist the phone, so it can’t be activated in Canada or the US. You would have to ship them overseas. Which would diminish their value. Of course, if someone buys it unknowingly they are stuck. And if someone overseas buys it and travels to North America, they are in for a surprise. Seems like a lot of work and risk, especially if they are brandishing a gun, which increases the penalties.
The companies could buy cell phone safes and install them, with 10 minute timers. It takes them about that to finish the paperwork anyway. This way, you have to wait for 10 minutes. Makes a hold-up much less viable, riskier and less profitable. So you need set the safe to open. Set too many at the same time and you can have it automatically trigger to call the police. Sort of like the bank machine tellers. (Like the ones that banks here use, to prevent robberies)