Man arrested over smashed Macau Apple Store door, plus iPhone and iPad crimes in Doral, Vermont and BaltimoreMan arrested over smashed Macau Apple Store door, plus iPhone and iPad crimes in Doral, Vermont and Baltimore

Police in Macau have arrested a 48-year-old man over the attack on 27 September that smashed the glass entrance of the Apple Store at The Londoner Macao, a hotel and shopping complex in Cotai.

Three more cases, all in the United States, turn on Apple products: an iPhone sale in Doral, Florida, that police say became an armed kidnapping, an iPad taken from a Vermont museum, and a Baltimore carjacking case built partly on records Apple handed to detectives.

Macau: arrested on his way back in

CCTV showed the man arriving at the store at about 12:25pm on Sunday 27 September, according to Macau's Judiciary Police, as reported by Macau Post Daily. He struck the door with a brick carried in his backpack and, when it broke, carried on with a long rigid object. The attack lasted under five minutes, and store management put the damage at about MOP 300,000.

Immigration records showed he left Macau soon after. Dimsum Daily reported on 3 October that officers intercepted him that day as he came back in through Qingmao Port. Police identified him only as Wang, an unemployed resident of mainland China, and said he had picked up an iron bar at a recycling point and the brick near the Taipa racecourse. They found no record of psychiatric treatment and no sign he had been queuing for a new product; his motive is still under investigation. The case has gone to the Public Prosecutions Office as aggravated criminal damage, which Macau Post Daily says carries up to ten years in prison.

Doral, Florida: an iPhone sale that turned into a kidnapping

A man in Doral contacted a seller on Facebook Marketplace on 28 September to buy an iPhone, and that sale went through, WSVN reports, citing Doral Police. On 9 October the same seller offered him more iPhones and asked to meet at the back of the buyer's apartment building. A white BMW was waiting, and a second man lying in the back seat pointed a gun at him and forced him inside.

He had brought $4,000 for the phones. On his second attempt to get out, police say, he threw the cash out of the car; when the armed man climbed out to collect it, he broke free, ran and hid. He later received a text warning him not to go to the police. Detectives traced the seller through the phone number used to arrange both sales and the car's registration, and stopped him on State Road 826 on 11 October. Wide Open Country, citing Local10, describes him as a 31-year-old man from Miami Gardens. WSVN lists the charges as kidnapping, armed robbery, grand theft and tampering with a witness, and says a judge set no bond. Wide Open Country also reports the arrest of the second man, aged 39, in Hallandale Beach on 12 October; WSVN's report did not identify him.

Vermont: an iPad and a donation box taken from a free museum

Vermont State Police are investigating a burglary at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum near Vergennes, reported on the morning of 11 October, WCAX reports. An Apple iPad and a donation box holding about $1,000 were taken. Admission to the museum is free, and executive director Chris Sabick called the theft "truly demoralizing". No arrest has been reported, and the state police New Haven barracks is asking anyone with information to call 802-388-4919.

Baltimore: how Apple's records helped name a carjacking suspect

Baltimore police arrested a 23-year-old man on 8 October, charging him with three armed carjackings of Baltimore Sedan Services drivers on 19, 20 and 22 September, CBS Baltimore reports. In each, a man booked a ride, pulled a gun and drove off in the driver's car.

The rides had been booked from a TextNow number, a free internet calling app that works over Wi-Fi. A warrant to TextNow produced a username and an email address. Police then served search warrants on Apple for that email address and on Comcast for the IP addresses behind the Wi-Fi connection, and all three records led to the same email. On 2 October officers answering a domestic call on Montpelier Street, the block of the first pickup, saw a man matching the description using an iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Our take

Converted at the pataca's peg, MOP 300,000 comes to roughly $37,000, which is the bill for one glass entrance and under five minutes' work. No report mentions anything being taken, and police found no sign of a launch-day queue, so until they give a motive this reads as an attack on the place rather than a raid on its stock. For anyone shopping at The Londoner, nothing changes.

Doral is the case with a lesson for buyers. A first sale that goes well is how trust gets built, and the second meeting is where the trap was set. If you are buying a used iPhone from a stranger, meet somewhere public that you choose, do not move the meeting once you are there, and never get into a car. A bank lobby or a police station's safe exchange spot is better still, because the seller cannot pick the ground.

We went to Apple's own Legal Process Guidelines for US police, published in October 2025, to see what the Baltimore warrant could have reached. Apple says account details and connection logs with IP addresses can be released on a subpoena or stronger order, while the content of an account needs a search warrant. Here the useful part was the plain link between an email address and a person. For iPhone owners, that is the honest picture of Apple's privacy promise: your content is guarded, but the fact that an account is yours is the first thing a court order gets.

The Vermont iPad is the one item where an owner can still do something. If it had Find My switched on, it can be marked as lost in the Find My app, which locks it and shows a message, and a thief who cannot get past that is left with a slab of glass to sell for parts. For an iPhone on a night out, APPDOOK puts locking Face ID first on the list; the Miami Beach taxi thefts showed what a thief can do once your phone is unlocked, and Stolen Device Protection does not stop it.