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Brooke Walker Reporting"This is a several hundred dollar item. It will fit in your shirt pocket.
It's a new generation of crime. As technology changes, so does the target. iPods are disappearing off store shelves, but not always legally. The latest theft happened overnight. Someone broke into a Mac Docs in Salt Lake and made off with half a dozen of the music players.
Police are calling this the new trend. They used to chase down stolen items of a different kind, like TV's or VCR's. But for thieves, the smaller the better, which makes the little white gadgets ideal. One store found that out the hard way.
"We do as much as we can to keep something safe, but if someone is really determined, they are going to get in, no matter what."
And that's exactly what happened at the Mac Docs store near 40th South and State. Around 1:00 am, someone threw a rock right through the front glass window. An alarm sounded, but it wasn't enough to scare the suspects off. They headed straight for a specific counter.
Russ Fellows, Store Manager: "They knew exactly what they wanted. They obviously ran by other things, that if they knew about the computer industry, there were more expensive things in the store they could have grabbed and ran with."
But it was iPods they were after and they smashed a glass counter to get them, leaving behind traces of blood; apparently one of the suspects cut himself on the broken glass. That's a clue police hope will lead to the culprit and the store manager hopes will lead to his merchandise.
Russ Fellows: "It is such a hot item, ready to sell on eBay. If it's easy to grab, they'll grab it."
A similar incident happened last November at a business called "Mac Something" in Orem. In that case, 30 iPods were taken, ringing in at a tune of more than 15-thousand dollars. That business recovered most of its stolen items when one of the crooks mom's found an iPod and turned her son in.
Det. Dwayne Baird, Salt Lake City Police Dept.: "It's a trend. It's a situation where these things are very valuable at this time. It's something you just have to protect."
It's advice that applies not just to store owners, but individuals as well. Police have also seen a lot of these disappear from cars and homes. They say if you own one, lock it up, hide it, avoid any opportunity.
