Former NBA player Rex Chapman pleaded guilty to four counts of felony theft this week. He was arrested for not only stealing over $15,000 worth of Apple gear from the store in Scottsdale, Arizona, but also for selling it at local pawn shops.
Chapman allegedly pretended to use the Apple Store’s self-checkout system, leaving without actually paying for the items.
Chapman’s career began at the University of Kentucky and extended through 12 years with the NBA as a player for the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Bullets, Miami Heat, and the Phoenix Suns.
After the plea, Chapman enrolled in a 28-day substance-abuse treatment program in Louisville, and later talked about his addiction to pain medication which he had take originally for injuries sustained while playing for the NBA.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s office said that Chapman pleaded guilty to the lowest level of felony in Arizona, Class Six, which could be later reduced by the sentencing judge to misdemeanors – something that is fairly common when the crime is not serious or violent enough, and the defendant does not have a criminal record.
Chapman also agreed to pay back the $15,128.30, half now and half during the length of his probation. He is also willing to pay an additional restitution amount of up to $10,000 towards any other as-yet discovered losses from the Apple retail outlet.
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader
Via: Engadget
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
11 responses to “Former NBA player uses all 5 fingers to palm Apple products”
Why does he even need to steal those?
Because he’s an ex-NBA player turned to drugs and that’s what led him to crime. He had a long career and even was making money after his basketball career ended, but he turned into a drug addict that led him to criminal behavior. Let him be a message as to why to not do drugs/drink alcohol.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about the Apple self-check out experience. Every time I’ve used it I feel like someone is going to pounce on me. What in the world does Apple expect when it’s a system that seems to be fraught with opportunities to steal?
The self checkout is supposed to only work for items $100 or less, but they do have items costing more than $100 on the shelves, but they only have iPods/iPhones/iPads in boxes on the floor during the Christmas season.
I was at a local Apple Store a few years back and the rep was watching a teenager steal a phone or something on the demo floor. I asked why he didn’t do anything about it, and he told me that at that time, they were told not to pursue them because they don’t want to have a big hassle in front of the rest of the customers. People would take a single end razor blade and stick it in between the security thing on the back and it wouldn’t set off the alarm.
All retail stores have a certain amount of shrinkage from theft (employee and customer), so I guess they only are going to do something about it when it makes sense to do so. With items like phones, etc., they have serial numbers and the device can be tracked when it gets activated, so that way they can get more evidence and get the cops involved without disrupting the sales floor.
Every time I used self checkout, someone would come up to me thanking me for the purchase. People on the floor get notifications of when someone use’s the self checkout, it’s just that they aren’t supposed to engage anyone if someone steals something. Why? My guess is they don’t want a disruption, plus these days these criminals are packing and I’m sure the last thing they want is some punk kid that’s being approached for stealing pulls out a gun and fires off a couple of rounds endangering employees and customers. For the bigger ticket items like phones, etc, they have serial numbers and can be tracked through the system, which is how they get these guys after the fact. remember how fast they got the guy that stole stuff from Jobs’ house? As soon as they know the serial number and it gets on the internet, they can get access to it’s location.
If an Apple employee sees someone stealing a product from the demo floor, they just notify a team leader and they find out the serial number and then they do a tracking of the product and catch them after the fact rather than disrupting the sales floor potentially endangering customers and employees. Some Apple Stores have security guards hanging around and it’s their job to deal with it and I believe they might just be there are a preventative measure or they might follow you out the door.
I was using a self check out at a restaurant and when I first used it which was right when they first activated the self pay system, I got tracked and hassled in the parking lot as the server didn’t check the system to make sure I did the self pay. Once I pulled out my phone and showed them the receipt, they apologized. I mentioned this to corporate and one of their VP’s had the same thing happen, which is why they are moving towards the servers carrying around iDevices so they are notified as it happens rather than embarrassing a customer. don’t worry, I got plenty of free food and free deserts for being unnecessarily hassled. I think it happened twice, but once they knew that I was a self pay customer, they learned that that’s how I pay my bill and stopped hassling me.
This is just one more confirmation that the NBA really stands for Nothing But A-holes.
Ah, the five finger discount. Perhaps Chapman has a future career in the NFL – the National Felons League.
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A drug addict will do anything to feed their habit. I have seen a couple of people I know go down that route. Very sad.