Impersonators are claiming laptops at Apple stores before real owners can pick them up

Apple computer buyers are reporting that impostors have been using fake IDs and QR codes to steal their laptops before they can pick them up at several Apple stores across Southern California.

The crime, reported to several media outlets in Southern California, occurs when consumers order Apple laptops online but find that when they arrive at the Apple stores to pick up the computers, they have already been claimed and taken.

Darragh Marmorstein, who lives in Los Angeles, told the Orange County Register that she ordered a Macbook Pro laptop and received a notification that her order was ready to pick up Nov. 30 at the Americana at Brand in Glendale, according to the publication.

Before heading to the store, she called and was told that her order had already been picked up. Marmorstein said Apple wouldn’t reimburse her for the laptop and wouldn’t say whether the person who picked up her order showed an ID.

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Yorba Linda resident Paul Giles told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that someone claiming to be him picked up his order for a 16-inch MacBook Pro that he was giving to his daughter. The incident also happened at the Americana at Brand Apple store.

According to Giles, the manager at Apple told him, ‘Oh, I’m sorry this happened. Somebody apparently impersonated you and picked it up.’”

Representatives for Apple and the Glendale Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Rick Markowitz also told KNBC-TVthat he ordered an Apple laptop for in-store pickup in Sherman Oaks but that someone else had shown a fake ID to pick up his order.

Markowitz said he filed a police report but hasn’t heard back. He also said that Apple told him someone used his QR code to pick up his laptop.

“That’s crazy. ... I don’t have any bank account draining. I got no suspicious emails or anything like that,” he added.