Thieves Take Off From JFK With $1.5 Million in iPads

Whenever we needed money, we’d rob the airport. To us, it was better than Citibank.
– Henry Hill, “Goodfellas”

John F. Kennedy International Airport cargo building 261, site of the 1978 Lufthansa heist and a key plot element in Martin Scorcese’s “Goodfellas,” is back in the news again, thanks to another robbery: The theft of thousands of iPads.

The New York Post reports that on Monday night, a pair of thieves used one of the airport’s own forklifts to steal two pallets of iPads. Some 3,600 iPads were stolen, worth $1.5 million. And the thieves might have made off with more, had they not been confronted by an airport worker. The shipment they pilfered was five pallets total.

Authorities suspect that, like the 1978 Lufthansa heist, led by the infamously paranoid Jimmy the Gent, the 2012 iPad escapade may have been an inside job.

JFK Cargo Airport Services did not respond to a request for comment. Apple declined to provide one, as well.

Update: An earlier version of this article stated that the devices stolen were iPad minis, as reported by the New York Post.