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Former NBA player Rex Chapman was arrested today on nine counts of organized retail theft and five counts of trafficking stolen property after police discovered that he had stolen over $14,000 worth of merchandise from a Scottsdale, Arizona Apple Store, according to CBS Sports.
According to police, Chapman managed to get away with so much loot by pretending he was using the iPhone-based EasyPay system, which allows customers to check themselves out through the Apple Store application without the assistance of an employee. Except Chapman wasn’t actually scanning or paying for anything. He was just going through the motions.
After leaving the store, Chapman would then hit up a local pawn shop to offload the pilfered products at a profit.
During his 12-year NBA career, Chapman became the first player to ever sign to the Charlotte Hornets, then played for Washington, Miami, and Phoenix before retiring in 2000.
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From that photo, “NBA Player” or even “Former NBA Player” is probably the last or second to last guess I would ever make.
http://usatthebiglead.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/rex-chapman-kentucky-wildcats.jpg
Seems he let himself (and his hair) go.
That’s why they call it Easysteal.
Face of Meth? Sad.
Face of theft.
Would love to know the figures on how much is stolen out of these Apple stores. I’ve checked myself out using this same method then asked for a bag and received one without question. Not sure how he managed to self checkout but not pay for $14,000. The stores I’ve been in all the high priced items: MacBooks, iMacs and iPhones are in the back.
I have no idea how Apple uses easypay unless they’ve just factored in a certain amount of stealing. The process works great, but even when I’ve used it and paid legitimately, I feel like someone SHOULD be stopping me and checking my purchase. It feels like they basically left a can by the door asking for people to pay for thibgs using the honor system.
They get a notification every time someone uses it (as do the security staff) saying which part of the store it was used in (seeing as they know where those products are located). Every time I’ve asked for a bag they ALWAYS ask to see the receipt so maybe it’s a case of this particular store being a little more lax than others. Given how busy Apple Stores are though it isn’t that much of a shock this stuff happens.
@WaveMedia is not correct. No one receives a notification every time that it is used in the store. Corporate probably has a way of seeing it, but the stores are too busy to try and police like that. Also, the security staff are generally third party contractors who would not be given that information. (Source: 5 years in Apple Retail)
It wasn’t all in one shot. This was done in multiple trips. You can only pay for stuff on the shelves with EasyPay.
Exactly, he was only taking small accessories from the stores. He would of had to have done this frequently, probably rotating through a few local stores. Part of the reason Apple can offer the EasyPay service is because accessories have the highest markup of all products. When I worked in retail at a Office supply, the computers were often sold for anywhere from $20 under cost to $20 over cost. The mice and keyboards and speakers however were sold at markups of 400%. So a $60 keyboard would cost the store $15. It’s the same with Apple although probably even more extreme. I would imagine their $49 iPhone cases cost them $5 or less (a 980% markup). So the actual net loss is small although the gross loss may be large.
There are speaker docks that are hundreds on the sales floor. They usually only stock 1 or 2 so it’s obvious when one goes missing.
Thats a lot of product to move considering they don’t let you use EasyPay for anything with a serial number. $14,000 worth of bumper cases lol.
Well the new phone has a lot of deals and it’s old technology, maybe he figured stealing from Apple was justified.
Just like your dad Samsung, huh?
Old tech, huh? Nothing in any Android phone is newer or as good, let alone better. Every time you post what you’re saying is this:
“Hey, look at me! I don’t know shit and I’m proud of it!”
Oh God here we go the old Android is better than Apple is better than Microsoft shit… I bet that is the only thought you have ever had…
You can buy pretty much anything but Macs, iPhones, iPods and iPads. Accessories like the Apple TV and AirPorts etc can be purchased with it as can several hundred pound/dollar/whatever things like Thunderbolt drives.
Can’t do Apple TV or Airports/Time capsules because they are serialized. Probably stole a bunch of Beats by Dre.
Instead of taking selfies in a store maybe the CEO should be watching the store!
This proves my point that store employees are nowhere near genius level.
This is no different than any other store self self-out system that everybody is adopting these days. The data is pretty clear that it costs the store less money to accept a higher rate of thefts than it does to higher additional cashiers.
Grow some balls and tell Samsung you don’t need their money. Your comments are nothing but drivel and not welcome.
Herb only gets attention here on these forums. Even his mom ignores him.
You really believe the “CEO” should be watching the store? You want him running asset protection, watching the cameras? Smh. People just type the first negative thing they can think of i see. Smh.
Reblogged this on thatsdb and commented:
Wow Rex
Give it a rest, herb. If you hate Apple so much, go post in pro-samsung boards. You’re certainly not appreciated here. If you make valid statements or even a good arguments, that would be one thing, but most of your posts are just junks.
Agreed.
Yet another “sports figure” setting a sterling example for youth to emulate…
Sterling example……no pun intended, I’m sure ;)
Roger. Pun made. Over and out.
you could hire a fulltime cashier for a year with that money…
This guy is Like a lot of former pros. He is easily recognizable and must have squandered his paycheck years ago. As a ball player he dropped out of school and likely learned nothing While there. He seems to have put down anyone who could help him, likely due to hubris he learned as a youth. And now what? Now if he is very lucky he gets on a better path and works at Walmart as a has-been. Or, more likely, he becomes homeless as his life fully unravels and he spirals down into the ground.
White people: Always stealing.
Walmart’s self-checkout sections have a dedicated employee to monitor customer’s activities in front of the scanner and quickly offer assistance if they see you need help and probably to watch for surreptitious activity. Apple isn’t Walmart, in volume, but…. Isn’t that what Floor Walkers in old time upscale department stores were for – while being helpful and not intimidating – making sure customers weren’t walking out with merchandise unpaid for. The reply section of this mag would be more enlightening if the respondents were less marmmy smarmy snarky and had something useful to say.
They do this in Apple Stores too. It just seems this particular guy was convincing enough to avoid it for so long. Employees get a notification every time someone uses Easy Pay and where they used it. This guy could very easily be using it at the same time someone else is right next to them so it just looks like he made a legit purchase, the staff get a notification, think “oh, it must have been that guy” then he can just walk out.
Thank you for informing me. The last Apple store I went to was 12 years ago and it was crowded. I now go to official resellers, or usually, contact the one in Vermont that sells me most of my stuff, usually by phone, as I prefer a human interface. It seems to me with EasyPay it would be easy to monitor a particular phone’s sales in the store and the security tag attached to the merchandise so that security would know which products ‘had legs’ and what was paid for. Besides Walmart, a number of grocery stores try to create a barrier free shopping environment. A Walmart Floor Walker told me, when I couldn’t find any lithium batteries in the store, that they caught some (meth freaks) with 30 battery packs stuffed in their underwear (?!), and about the same number of hair dye activator in the underwear. (douse them with water and watch them fizzle like the wicked witch of the west) She said that the main problem is that these miscreants can’t be stopped until they exit the building and that the store requires the employee to call 911. All this activity costs us money in higher costs and misplaced peace officer activities.
Next time you use EasyPay, and you scan the barcode, WATCH the nearby employees. They will all glance at you. When you scan an item, your phone plays a PING at max volume regardless of your volume settings or if you have headphones plugged in. Someone will be watching you from that point. You’ll need to be very convincing to get out the door without paying then.
That is not correct Walters. We should remove this post
what happened to the money he had earned during his NBA career that he now has to steal?
I am not a lawyer or anything but I understand that so far he has only been accused of a crime. Once I read something about “innocent until proven guilty”…
That is really really sad. I guess he burned through the $22 million he earned as an NBA Player through drug abuse. He doesn’t look like a meth head. He probably used the more expensive cocaine. He should have moved to Colorado. Then he could have made millions from the marijuana legally sold in the state, just like Payton Manning.