Whatever you do, don’t download any fun 3rd party programs to the iPhones at the University Avenue Apple store in Palo Alto, California. You may be detained for 2 1/2 hours, then photographed and told that other Apple stores will be ” on the lookout” for you.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

We’re halfway down the block when the manager comes running out and tells us to stop right there,”‘ Fukuba said.

The students were ordered to return to the store, where a security guard and the manager called police, Vicenti said.

Sgt. Sandra Brown confirmed that the store called the Palo Alto Police Department and an officer responded, but made no arrests. She said the store issued the teens an “admonishment” to leave the store, but police did not force them out.

After being lectured by the manager on the dangers of “hacking” into the phones, the teens were photographed and told their pictures were being sent to all Apple stores “so they’d be on the lookout for us,” Rogers said.

He and Patel were then allowed to leave. Fukuba and Vicenti, who are both under 18, had to wait for their parents to come pick them up.

Over the next few days, the boys worried about the ban’s repercussions.

Fukuba wondered what will happen if he needs to get his computer or iPhone repaired.

“I’ll have to get a friend to buy stuff for me, like a drug deal,” Fukuba said.

Later in the week, the teens had heard through a friend that a different manager had told said they were still welcome at Apple, despite what the other employees had said.

“I’m not really sure what’s going on,” Fukuba said.

An Apple spokesperson confirms that the teenagers are not banned from the Apple store in any way: “They were not banned from that store or any other store,” he said.

Teens say they were banned from Apple stores for life, company denies it [SJMN]
(Photo: epicharmus )

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