After a hard day’s work, I like to sit in front of the TV and stick my feet up my a hot cup of tea and a copy of the day’s paper. Other Brits feel the need for something a little more exciting, such as looting electrical stores for anything they can sell on the black market and torching whatever’s left.
Thankfully, Apple’s iconic glass-fronted retail stores should come to no harm, as some reports suggest Apple is granted “special treatment” from the U.K. police force.
As one 20,000 square foot Sony warehouse burned down in the U.K.’s capital, police vans and officers equipped with riot shields and batons surrounded the Apple store at the Oxford Circus to ensure that it came to no harm. Apple stores also removed Macs, iPhones, iPods and iPads from store displays to ensure would-be thieves weren’t left with an easy target.
But was Apple really granted “special treatment” from by the police? Or did the images of police vans parked outside of Apple’s stores simply fuel rumors that this was the case?
The current popularity of Apple’s devices would certainly make its stores a prime target for looters looking for salable goods, and those glass doors make it a little easier for thieves to gain entry, but can we assume that these stores were top priority for the metropolitan police?
Thankfully, I don’t live in a city affected by the recent riots so I can’t say for certain that Apple’s stores didn’t received greater protection — I’m just assuming that’s not the case.
Did you witness the riots for yourselves? Did Apple stores seem like a top priority for police?
[via iDB]
