Police investigate Link between Apple Store Break Ins

Police in Lower Merion are trying to learn whether five bandits who took armloads of laptops from an Apple Store in Marlton in September might be connected to a predawn smash-and-grab on July 14 in Ardmore.

Thieves broke a front plateglass window at the Apple Store in Suburban Square and took $22,000 worth of laptop computers and other high-tech loot, police said - including 10 iPhone 4s.

Lower Merion Police Superintendent Michael J. McGrath said the theft occurred at 5:18 a.m. at the store on St. James Place. He said the burglars took 11 laptops and three iPods, as well as the iPhones.

At the Apple store in Marlton in September, five masked thieves took 31 seconds to shatter the plateglass door with a brick, dash in, and grab 23 MacBook Pro computers, 14 iPhones, and nine iPod Touch units. The store is in the high-end Promenade at Sagemore shopping area.

A surveillance camera videotaped the five burglars darting through the store, scooping up the electronic items, and rushing out.