China nabs iPhone thieves who tunneled into warehouse

Three Chinese men came up with a quicker way to get their hands on the latest iPhone 6: instead of queuing outside Apple outlets, they dug a hole into a warehouse.

Beijing police said Wednesday that they had detained three men suspected of stealing 240 iPhone 6 handsets, valued at about 1.4 million yuan (228,496 U.S. dollars), from a Beijing warehouse.

Police said the three men broke into the facility between Dec. 12 and 13 via a 50-cm hole dug out of the wall. One suspect surnamed Chang used to work as a driver for the logistics company that owned the warehouse and was familiar with the site.

They later sold the gadgets and spent most of the money on cars, gold, and gambling.

Police located the suspects by tracking the phones' serial numbers, leading to the arrests in late December.

Apple's products are hugely popular and costly in China. Chinese netizens have dubbed the latest iPhone 6 the "Kidney 6" following news reports of a teenager selling his kidney to buy Apple products.

In 2012, a 17-year-old high school student from Anhui Province had one of his kidneys removed and sold it to an organ-trafficking gang. He later confessed to using the money to buy an iPhone and an iPad.