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Disgruntled customer smashes up smartphones at Apple store in France

The scene, captured on camera and posted on the Internet, has gone viral in France.

FRENCH PROSECUTORS SAID yesterday that they would seek a fast-track trial against a young man – apparently an unsatisfied customer – who ran amok in an Apple store, smashing phones and tablets with a metal ball.

The scene, captured on camera and posted on the internet, has gone viral in France.

In it, the man walks into the store in a shopping mall in Dijon, central-eastern France, and pounds the screens of Apple products with a heavy fist-sized metal ball used in petanque, a French bowling game.

“I warned them, I told them, ‘reimburse me’, and they refused,” he told other shoppers. As he walked out of the store, a security guard intervened.

Prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare said he caused €55,000 in damages.

The store and Apple’s French subsidiary did not reply to requests for information about the incident, which occurred on Thursday.

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Read: You can now exchange your foreign leftover coins at Irish airports for duty free vouchers

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    Mute Poole Hyde
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:11 PM

    I’d say that was immensely satisfying all the same….

    365
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    Mute Justin Devaney
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:08 PM

    He has boules of steel

    285
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    Mute Timmay Timeo
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:07 PM

    @John S: Where in France have you been to? Can you speak French?

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    Mute Colm Flaherty
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    Oct 1st 2016, 10:25 PM

    Well, at least you’re an equal opportunities racist so!

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    Mute Conor Power
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:56 PM

    How d’ya like dem apples?

    124
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    Mute Sam Palmer
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:49 PM

    Hahaha!
    Have to hand it to the guy, cool, calm and collected.
    Also, why should his trial be fast tracked?
    Afraid to upset their Apple Overlords is it?

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    Mute Poole Hyde
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:59 PM

    And he’d the most ideal tool I can think of for the job. Well possibly next to an Irish road bowling ball.

    25
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    Mute Brent Weaver
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    Oct 1st 2016, 7:41 PM

    @Sam Palmer: Yeah the struck me as odd too. Not like they haven’t got other more serious villains to prosecute.

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    Mute James Joseph Superior Power
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 5:50 AM

    Afraid to highlight the alleged fact that Apple sublets the manufacturing of their phones or parts of to companies in countries that operates on a slave labor bases. Great company to work for if you live in the west where other skills required to do the job requires a leave of education not available to the said less fortunate.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:20 PM

    Thousands worth of damage done in plain view of dozens of spectators and a camera in a busy mall. Viral video, free advertisement for Apple and an arrest and probably a hefty fine for him. The Perfect Crime.

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    Oct 1st 2016, 7:00 PM

    €55,000 of damage? It probably cost less than €10,000 to make those devices, yet they can probably insure them for their sale cost…so Apple are probably making money on this.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Oct 1st 2016, 7:08 PM

    Lol, that’s some strange logic you got there

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    Mute Ricki Brennan
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:01 PM

    Not really strange to be honest. Apple are hardly going to replace them for free or cost Apple’s price. Whatever the cost of these that the store paid to buy them from Apple is the amount the insurers cover.

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    Mute Poole Hyde
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:33 PM

    It cost $240ish to produce an iPhone 6 and the rest is brand name so lets be fair and say it costs about $300 to make an iPhone 7 … He’d have had to got through about 200 odd of the things to rack up that bill… Ouch.

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 5:52 AM

    Yeah… all those designers and engineers that conceptualised and designed it, shipping it across the world, prototypes and testing, the nicely brightly lit store with all those unsalable demo models and dozens of helpful people are just working away for free.

    It baffles me at the idiocy of people who think the cost of parts and putting them together equates to the retail price of a product.

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    Mute Ironballs
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 10:02 AM

    Yeah. Bloody idiots! You are superior to them and that’s all that matters!

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    Mute seeingeye
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:11 PM

    Apple will just bill the Irish taxpayers for it.

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    Mute Mark Byrne
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:25 PM

    Yawn.

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    Mute Rand Al Thor
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:45 PM

    Give it a rest we are the most pathetic whinging race on this planet,give your snide comments to Apple workers in cork and the about employed.I bet you are a Dub with stacks of jobs to choose from.

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    Mute Sean
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:03 PM

    Who is “we”? Speak for yourself.

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    Mute Rand Al Thor
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    Oct 1st 2016, 10:29 PM

    Constructing that comment must really have taxed the brain.

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    Mute Jimmy Murphy
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:31 PM

    ‘Would you like to make a customer complaint Sir?’………..’I will take that as a Yes’.

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    Mute Irek Dowejko
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:27 PM

    Where is video???

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    Mute That's Bo!!ox
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:52 PM

    In jail for killing the radio star.

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    Mute Theresa Cosgrave
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    Oct 1st 2016, 7:28 PM

    Not as dramatic as I though for a bill of 55k. Was expecting more along the line of miley Cyrus wrecking ball kind of thing.
    https://youtu.be/uiOgp9FTXyk

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    Mute Ricki Brennan
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:03 PM

    They are probably counting loss of earnings and the retail price too. Makes it sound much more by adding all the costs on top.

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    Mute Harry Whitehead
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    Oct 1st 2016, 7:35 PM

    You’re next, Bono! People haven’t forgotten that little iTunes marketing stunt of yours.

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    Mute Peter Smyth
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:36 PM

    Don’t upset the apple cart

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:12 PM

    Terrorist attack….

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    Mute Ted Murray
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    Oct 1st 2016, 6:54 PM

    @Get Lost Eircodes: — Justifiable homicide.

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    Mute Can't Think of One
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 2:49 AM

    Spoiled little sh*t who reacted when he couldn’t have his own way

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    Mute oliverjumelle
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    Oct 1st 2016, 9:26 PM

    Angry because they paid less tax than him

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    Mute Jimmy Murphy
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    Oct 1st 2016, 8:39 PM

    Finally, we have an apple b@stard.

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    Mute Rand Al Thor
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    Oct 1st 2016, 10:27 PM

    I prefer to be a b@stard and admire a great company than a right side of the sheets whinger.

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    Mute Jimmy Murphy
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    Oct 1st 2016, 10:29 PM

    I was just making a joke Rand, not a point.

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    Mute Michal Ridzon
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 12:29 AM

    Apparently he was a android fan.

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    Mute Sean O'sullivan
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 10:11 AM

    This article says a lot about our material obsession with mobile phone.

    I’m sure there’s a small claims court in France that he could have gone to.

    Unsatisfied customer? What happened to the word dissatisfied?

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    Mute Joe Hill
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    Oct 2nd 2016, 10:52 AM

    They won’t be able to write that off against taxes they don’t pay!

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