Fight Erupts in Pasadena iPhone Line After Man Hires Homeless to Wait
At least two people were arrested outside a Pasadena Apple store this morning after getting into a fight while waiting to buy the new iPhone.
Fully aware of the fact that we now live in a time when people will beat one another up in the frenzy to obtain more consumer electronics, Apple had hired two Pasadena police officers to keep control of the crowd, many members of which had been waiting in line since yesterday. The officers quickly arrested the bickering men, both of whom, at ages 23 and 43, were old enough to know better.
It is unclear at this time if the fight had anything to do with the fact that dozens of people waiting in the line were homeless people, hired off Skid Row by an anonymous man who promised to pay them each $40 to queue up and obtain two tickets to purchase iPhones. Customers are allowed only two phones each, so presumably the man's plan was to hoard the tickets, buy the phones, and then sell them for a markup.
The plan went south when Apple employees began confiscating tickets from people in line who couldn't give them money up front for the iPhones, which meant that many of the homeless people who'd been waiting for hours ended up with nothing. One of those people, interviewed below, says his plan now is to take the train back downtown and "hope something else comes by and gives me an opportunity to get some income."
