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Foxconn employee detained by Chinese police for iPhone 6 shell leaks

iPhone-6-Rear-Shell

An employee at Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has reportedly been detained by Chinese police over allegations the 40-year old man stole and sold iPhone 6 shells in the week’s leading up to the device’s unveiling. The report comes from The Wall Street Journal, which cites local reports from Communist Party-run newspaper Taihang Daily:

Chinese police in recent days said that on Sept. 4, they detained an employee of Foxconn, a major Apple contractor, for stealing shells of the new phone from a factory in northern Shanxi province… The factory is in a development zone in the city of Jincheng. A staffer who picked up the phone at the public security bureau in in the zone confirmed that a suspect had been detained and that it was working with Foxconn. She added that the incident is still under investigation.

According to the reports, the suspect sold six “shells” of the device (probably not unlike the several that leaked prior to the iPhone 6 unveiling) and received 6,000 yuan or $960 US for the parts. “According to the local media account, Mr. Qiao in July found an advertisement near his factory that said, “purchasing parts from Apple Inc. at high prices.” When he dialed the number, somebody on the other end offered 1,000 yuan ($160) for every iPhone 6 shell he could provide.”

Apple hasn’t commented, but Foxconn, which reported the employee to police after investigating the missing parts, told the Wall Street Journal that it “expects its employees to follow its internal code of conduct.”

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Comments

  1. Yunhua Ji - 10 years ago

    Feel shamed. Those guys ruined the surprise. However, the shell was leaked even half year ago, and who shall be detained for that?!

  2. 89p13 - 10 years ago

    I would NOT want to be Mr. Qiao for a mere $960.

    • acslater017 - 10 years ago

      Maybe they will go easy on him, since they’re so happy to harass foreign companies these days.

    • Cause I bet they get payed so well at that Foxconn factory, I’m guessing that 960 is probably quite a lot of money for people that work at these factories. We aren’t talking North American wages and working conditions here.

  3. Bruno Fernandes (@Linkb8) - 10 years ago

    All the editors here really need to watch this video every morning.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

    Or you know, just never use an apostrophe again. It’s like nails running down a chalkboard when people use them incorrectly.

  4. arroyomuchacho - 10 years ago

    I saw the photos of the stolen case months ago and it gave me a false first impression of the iPhone 6. Any apple product will always be so much more than leaked photos of parts. I try to keep this in mind.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.