UPDATE [7:55 PM EST]: TMO has received confirmation from a Daily Post representative that the newspaper clipping, and the story, are indeed true. The article's author, Angela Ruggiero, has also taken to Twitter confirm the story's authenticity.
A scanned newspaper clipping purporting to be from the January 4th edition of Palo Alto’s Daily Post appeared online early Monday, claiming that a Microsoft campus in Mountain View was recently robbed. In an ironic twist, however, the thief took only Apple iPads that were stored at the facility, leaving Microsoft’s products untouched.
Microsoft's campus in Mountain View is presumably loaded with Microsoft's latest and greatest products, but a thief decided to steal five Apple iPads from the company's offices instead…
Microsoft reported that two iPad 2s and two iPad 3s with a combined value of more than $3,000 were taken some time between Dec. 19 and Dec. 26 on the company's campus. A police report also said a fifth tablet — described as an iPad4, worth $729 — was taken as well. But that model does not exist yet. [The police] said it may have been a typo… [Author's Note: The “iPad4” was likely the fourth generation iPad, released in October, and does indeed exist despite the inability of the newspaper and police to recognize it as such.]
No Microsoft products were stolen.
Microsoft's Mountain View “Silicon Valley” Campus
(Image via jores, Panoramio)
Although the article assumes that Microsoft’s campus in Mountain View is teeming with the company’s valuable consumer products, it is unknown what operations and divisions were occupying the rooms that were robbed. It is possible that the iPads were the only attainable targets and that other items, such as servers and desktop PCs, could not be as easily swiped.
Regardless, there is surely some embarrassment in Redmond that thieves would break into a Microsoft facility only to steal Apple products.
The authenticity of the article has not yet been confirmed. The Mac Observer has attempted to contact the Daily Post but there is no answer at the newspaper’s office, likely due to the early hour on the west coast at the time of this story’s publication. We will update you if we receive more information.