Apple store staff have been praised by social media users for how they handled thieves stealing devices in broad daylight.
The incident was recorded by a bystander and later posted on Twitter by Fox News.
The caption reads: "'LET 'EM GO': Video shows Apple store being ransacked by thieves as staff warn customers not to stop them."
In the video, two hooded thieves wearing balaclavas and sporting backpacks can be seen shoving shoppers to the side as they ransack the store on Black Friday, yanking Apple iPhones from their cords and stuffing the devices into their bags. As has become the norm, several customers in the store could be seen recording the incident on their phones.
Someone in the background can be heard in the video saying: "Yo, should we stop them?"
After which a staff member urged shoppers not to get involved, announcing: "Let them go."
In one moment, an employee can be seen ushering members of the public away from one of the thieves.
Many users took the opportunity to praise the Apple staff for not letting their customers get involved, with one person writing: "The staff 100% did the right thing here. It's egregious what these criminals are doing, but the employees are protecting the customers. Now what needs to happen is someone hold the criminals accountable and let the police be the police."
"Good for them. They wanted to insure their customers didn't play hero and get themselves injured. The employees know the items all have serials and are able to be disabled. This isn't Apple's first mass theft. This was the right way to do it," another user added.
However, other Twitter users were evidently frustrated that more wasn't done to apprehend the thieves. One person wrote: "The fact that they let these people just walk in and take whatever they want with no deterrence kinda makes me feel like a sucker for paying for my stuff! Anyone else?"
"Two skinny boys ransacked whole store in front of hundreds of people, it's a shame no one try to stop them. They should be behind the bars by now," another added.
Others commented on the fact that the devices will most likely be useless once taken from the store, given that they are all demonstration products. "They won't get very far since the demo devices have a more advanced Find My Phone feature which cannot be turned off even if the device is powered off," one tweet read.
Someone else quipped: "This is great.. these devices have tracking mechanisms in them don't they? Not the brightest crayons in the box!"
"First of all, by law, employees can't touch or try and stop thieves. Secondly, I don't know why they are stealing apple products like this. They won't be able to work! The displays are never able to connect to service! There's no point in stealing them. [Shaking my head]," another user commented.
According to a later report from The New York Post, the thieves were able to walk away with over $35,000 in products after ransacking the Palo Alto, California store. In both 2018 and 2016, that same store was apparently looted as well, with thieves taking $100,000 in devices in both incidents combined.
