LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Apple Store was burglarized overnight hours after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was announced.
Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said the burglars used a sledgehammer to bust through the front, glass door and then made off with an undetermined number of iPhones and computers. He said the store was doing inventory to determine the total loss.
Crews were working to fix the broken door Thursday morning, but there was no other sign of the breakin. Hastings said it happened around midnight.
The burglars reportedly fled in a maroon Saturn-type car.
A store manager said he could not comment.
Robert Blake, an Apple fan who was placing flowers at the front of the store, told police a man ran out of the business shortly after he pulled up late Wednesday night.
The store - the first Apple retail location in Arkansas - opened in August in The Promenade at Chenal shopping center.
Jobs had battled health problems, including pancreatic cancer in 2003. He was 56.
A single bouquet of Oriental Lillies remained at the front corner of the Apple Store Thursday morning, though no one else was there to mourn Jobs' death when it opened for business at 10 a.m.
Several customers, however, said they felt the loss.
"It's a sad day for Apple," said Justin Scott, a North Little Rock resident who stopped by Thursday to return an iPad. "It was pretty devastating because (Jobs) created one of the most awesome phones in the world. It's like where is it going to go from now?"