NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A crew of four men has stolen $384,000 worth of smartphones and tablets from three AT&T stores in Hampton Roads earlier this year.
Three of them including Breon Berry, 25; Corey Holmes, 26; and Brice Keeling, 23 have been charged in Newport News General District court and one of them has been charged in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
According to court documents, the crew was after iPhones, iPads and Samsung Galaxy phones. The crew robbed a store in Newport News February 9, two stores on February 25 and April 7 in Virginia Beach, and attempted to rob a store in Suffolk on April 2. Around 442 smartphones and tablets were stolen in total.
The crew had similar plans for each robbery. Two men with firearms would go into the store. One would wear a mask and the other wore sunglasses. Once inside, the robbers would demand employees to go toward the back storage, remove cash and phones and place them in black bags they brought with them. Before leaving the store, the robbers would take employees identification cards, phones and tie the employees up with black zip ties.
The robbers attempted to rob the AT&T store off Harbortowne Parkway in Suffolk. An employee was preparing to close the store for the evening and noticed a suspicious, dark-colored sedan driving slowly around the parking lot. According to court documents, the employee saw three men, all wearing dark clothing walk up to the store. The robbers ran away after learning the door was locked.
Berry was arrested April 7 at a hotel in Virginia Beach. Court documents say Berry confessed to being the getaway driver and told police about the three other men involved.
Perry and one other man were arrested April 8 at a hotel in South Carolina by FBI. Federal agents found 144 of the phones stolen April 7 and more than $25,000 in cash.
Read the federal court affidavit
News 3 spoke to the owner of Cell Phone Repair stores in Hampton Roads. He said phones are a lucrative business.
"They have a very high resale value. They can command anywhere from 200-400 sometimes up to 500 600 dollars," said Lejno.
So Lejno and his employees take precautions to make sure the phones they sell at their stores are clear.
"We like to check the IMEI, or the ESN, which is a specific I.D. for that specific phone," Lejno.
The process is simple. Punching in a phone's identification numbers on a website like Swappa will provide information on whether that phone has been stolen, reported lost or is blacklisted.
People who shop at the Hilltop Shopping Center in Virginia Beach, where the AT&T store was robbed April 7 gave News 3 mixed emotions.
"I don't really expect it, but I mean it`s probably a pretty target rich area for opportunists or people who are looking to victimize people who are otherwise not expecting something like that to go down," said Andrew Horton.
Rachel Lowery who grew up in the area said, "That's definitely not something I would expect coming back here. Especially in Hilltop, I live right around the corner and we never have any issues like that."
Both customers said the robbery won't deter them from shopping and going to the area in the future.
