A California man arrested last week on Wednesday was in connection with the theft of display devices from an Apple Store located in Berkeley. He is seen on video walking past a police car and then walking to a getaway vehicle.
Detectives from the Emeryville Police Department arrested Tyler Mims, 22, of Berkeley, for his involvement in this theft. He was charged with burglary and grand theft as well as other crimes.
Officers from the department responded to the scene on Monday after a caller reported a crime. The caller said that the suspect fled the scene with 50 iPhones worth a total of $49.230.
In the video, a masked man wearing black clothing, who was later identified as Mims, is seen going from table to table at 10:30 am on February 5, 2024. He can be seen ripping phones off their displays and placing them in his pockets.
The thief steals dozens of expensive phones in the video. The person who recorded the video followed the individual closely as he left the store, brushed up against a police car, and got into a black Hyundai.
The next day, the video was widely shared on social media.
Since Jan. 19, the police department has responded four times to grand thefts at the Apple Store.
Detectives started working with agencies in the area to identify similar thefts. They identified the thefts as organized crimes.
The Department announced on Thursday that a joint investigation between its detectives, the Berkeley Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol led to three arrests in connection with an earlier theft that occurred at the Apple Store in Berkeley.
Mims, according to police, was among those arrested and is the person shown in the video taken from the Emeryville Apple Store.
Mims has been arrested and charged on three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, burglary and grand theft, and organized retail theft.
As of Thursday, the video had been viewed more than 10,000,000 times on TikTok, X, and other platforms.
According to E’Ville Eye, the Apple Store featured in the video had been closed for a few months in 2013 but reopened again in January.
