BERKELEY — The day after three people were arrested for allegedly stealing more than 75 iPhones from the Fourth Street Apple Store, two other suspects were arrested Thursday for stealing phones, iPads and laptop computers from the same store earlier in the day, police said Friday.
Police have not specified any possible connection between the thefts.
Thursday’s grab-and-dash thefts happened about 12:15 p.m. at the store at 1823 Fourth Street
Police said two men entered the store and stole 16 iPhones, six iPads and four MacBooks and fled in a silver Honda before officers could respond.
A witness got the license plate number for the Honda; about 4 p.m. Thursday it was stopped by Vacaville police and the two suspects were arrested.
The stolen items were not recovered, police said. The suspects were brought back to Berkeley and booked.
According to court records, only one of the suspects arrested in the Wednesday thefts — Tyler Mims — has been formally charged so far. Two men stole the phones from the store and fled in a red Dodge truck. It was stopped later in East Oakland and the three suspects were arrested and the phones recovered, police said.
Mims, 22, who has addresses in both Berkeley and Sacramento, is also the suspect in several thefts at the Emeryville Apple store, including one Monday where video surveillance captured a man stuffing 50 iPhones with a retail value of some $49,000 into his pants before fleeing to a double-parked car.
According to court records, Mims was formally charged Friday with 16 felony and misdemeanor counts stemming from the thefts at the two stores, including multiple counts of second degree burglary, organized retail theft, grand theft of personal property, and receiving stolen property. He was being held in lieu of $420,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
No charges have been filed yet against the other two suspects, a 28-year-old Oakland man and a 20-year-old Berkeley woman. The man remained in custody Friday morning but the woman has been released, according to jail records.
