'Funny walk' sinks alleged iPhone smuggler
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The iPhone 6 plus, left, and iPhone 6 are displayed on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Cupertino, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Walking through customs with the gait of Iron Man may not exactly work out—who knew? Customs officers at Futian Port in China stopped a guy who had an odd walk and allegedly found 94 hidden iPhones strapped to his body, Gizmodo reports.
According to a Chinese social media site, officers spotted his "weird walking posture, joint stiffness, [and] muscle tension" and made him pass through a metal detector, which revealed the phones.
"The result is what looks like body armor fashioned from phones, including an iPhone loincloth of sorts," quips CNET. (See it here.) The still-unidentified man was traveling from Hong Kong, where iPhones are either cheaper or easier to obtain on the black market, the Huffington Post reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They sure aren't cheap in China, where people pay around $872 for an unlocked 16GB iPhone 6. That's hard to afford in a country where the average annual salary is only $4,755.
Buying a phone through an operator like China Mobile or China Unicom is easier because they offer mobile-operator subsidies, the Financial Times notes, but the Telegraph reports that even then there's often limited supply.
And smuggled iPhones may be no better, considering CNET's report that smuggled iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units have been known to sell there for more than $2,400.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As for the alleged smuggler, he appeared to have mostly second-hand 5S models along with a few 6 and 6 Plus phones. He could face up to seven years in prison and a fine of $260,000.
At least he'll be about 30 pounds lighter without all that tech hardware strapped to his body. (For more, read about a study on "iPhone separation anxiety.")
This article originally appeared on Newser: 94 iPhones Strapped to Smuggler
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