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How Apple Watch Activation Led to $1M Robbery Arrests

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Three suspects have been arrested for stealing more than $1 million in Apple products from a delivery truck on Long Island in January. The FBI, along with New York City and Nassau County police, apprehended Alan Christhofer Cedeno-Ferrer, 27, Michael Mejia-Nunez, 29, and Ennait Alexis Sirett-Padilla, 24, charging them with federal robbery offenses that carry sentences exceeding 10 years.

The men allegedly wore masks and brandished handguns when they ambushed a delivery truck outside the Apple store at Americana Manhasset's "Miracle Mile" around 8 a.m. on January 3rd. They zip-tied one worker and ordered another to drive to a remote lot, then transferred hundreds of Apple watches, iPhones and iPads into a stolen Home Depot truck before heading to a storage facility in Paterson, New Jersey.

Investigators caught them through a combination of careless mistakes. Sirett-Padilla rented the storage unit in his own name, while Cedeno-Ferrer's fingerprints appeared on the rental agreement. Surveillance footage captured both suspects unmasked at the facility. Most damningly, Cedeno-Ferrer activated two stolen Apple Watches in the days following the heist—a digital trail that helped seal their fates.