L.A. Homeless Hired to Buy Latest iPhones
A businessman scheming to get his profit-minded hands on dozens of new iPhones allegedly recruited about 100 homeless people from Skid Row in Los Angeles to wait in line overnight at the Pasadena Apple Store, but many were left unpaid and stranded after his plan was exposed, local media reported Friday.
The unidentified reseller had offered $40 to each hired hand who bought an iPhone for him, which he bragged about to others in the line of about 200 people, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. When they learned of the scheme, store personnel stopped selling the latest iPhone models to the homeless stand-ins.
Customers were limited to two phones per person.
An agitated crowd surrounded the man when he announced he wouldn’t pay anyone who had not bought a phone, and police officers had to escort him away — several new models in hand — for his protection about 9 a.m., Lt. Jason Clawson said.