Store Owner Thrilled Over Recovery of Stolen iPods

Store Owner Thrilled Over Recovery of Stolen iPods


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Nishi Gupta reporting An Orem business owner is thrilled after police arrest those responsible for breaking into his store.

"When I got the phone call, I literally screamed in my office, I was so happy," he says.

The owner of Mac Something's has been on edge since almost 30 iPods were stolen from his shop Wednesday. By Friday, police had caught the suspects, found the merchandise, and the store was in business.

Stores have a hard time keeping the iPod in stock because it's a hot item. The bad guys know that too. That's why they cleaned out the store's shelves.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something: "Our very sad and empty shelves that we had earlier in the week are now full again."

And Darren Westenhaver is happy because he never thought he would see his merchandise again.

On Wednesday, his store Mac Something, looked quite different. A "closed for business" sign hung on the door, broken glass littered the ground, and inventory was all over the floor. His store had been broken into. Right away he knew the hot-selling iPods were gone-

Police arrested two minors and 19-year-old Joshua Gillette, and 18-year-olds Brett Shell and Justin Frossard.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something/Earlier: "More than likely they're probably selling them on eBay."

He was right about that. Police say they were trying to cash in-- a number of the iPods were already on the auction site. But Westenhaver never guessed how the kids would get caught.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something: "That is parenting at its best."

A mother who had been keeping up with the news made a connection.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something: "Her son had come home in the wee hours of the morning the day of our robbery and was behaving really weirdly, strangely. The following morning she searched his backpack and she found one of these iPod videos that are $400."

It was something her son couldn't afford, so she called police. Some 30 iPods and accessories were stolen, about 15-thousand dollars worth- but police found most of it.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something: "Some of it's still shrink-wrapped, ready to be sold."

And the rest of the stuff, mostly untouched, will be back on the sales floor soon. So for Mac Something, It's back to business as usual, because the store's supply is in high demand.

Darren Westenhaver/ Mac Something: "We have a waiting list for stuff. I imagine we'll sell through what we have, maybe even over the weekend."

Today, the store actually sold one of the recovered iPods. As for the suspects, three were booked into the Utah County Jail, and the others are at a youth detention center.

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