The robbery and kidnapping took place on April 5, and occurred after a man in his twenties responded to an online advert and met up with a man and woman. It is unclear what the advert was for, but they later robbed him of several items including an unidentified Apple iPad.
Pair makes off with items after kidnapping
The woman apparently threatened the man with a knife, while her male accomplice sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. The pair later stole electronics, prescription drugs and $7,500 in cash before they made him get into a car so they could drive him away from the scene.
After being rescued the victim said that one of the stolen items was a “test model iPad from Apple.” It is still not clear whether the victim works for Apple, and was testing an as yet unreleased device, or if he had come across the device in some other way. According to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office the iPad is yet to be recovered.
Police investigating the case have made two arrests. The suspects have been named as Katherine Stump, 20 and Alexander Nejat, 25. Both are known to authorities and were found to be in possession of several phones, which police say they may have stolen during other similar crimes.
Top-secret Apple iPad prototypes usually closely guarded
Apple is very careful to protect its unreleased devices, and often disguises them so that rivals cannot discern their design features. Developers who created apps for the Apple Watch were banned from taking devices home with them, and were made to work in secret labs.
There were concerns that the iPad was a prototype for the next generation iPad, and the story could have been the latest product leak. An Apple employee once left a prototype iPhone 4 in a bar, and it was later picked up by technology news site Gizmodo, to the ire of Steve Jobs. Although the Apple Watch prototype never found itself in strange hands, it was spotted on Apple employees as they tested it around California.
