A Tempe Burglar Smashed a Window and Got Away With Dozens of Empty Mac Mini Boxes

TEMPE, Ariz., Oct. 25, 2026 — A burglar in Tempe went to the trouble of smashing an office window in the middle of the night, and all he got for it was cardboard.

Security cameras at a tech company in a business park near University Drive and State Route 143 caught a man in a plaid shirt and a black baseball cap shattering a glass window around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, FOX 10 Phoenix reported. He never fully came inside. He leaned halfway through the blinds and shoved dozens of Mac Mini boxes out the window.

The boxes were empty. The actual computers were sitting on the desks in front of him.

"Nope! Just empty boxes," employee Curran Rose told the station when asked whether anything of value was taken. "Our computers were right there in front of them. They just steal the boxes instead."

Rose said the office mostly found it funny once the shock wore off. "Everyone was laughing about it," he said, adding that he was just glad no one was hurt. His boss, he said, is still spooked.

As Boing Boing pointed out, an empty Mac box doesn't fetch much these days, roughly $16 on eBay.

The company has filed a report with Tempe police, and the owner is offering a $1,500 reward for information that leads to the man's identification and arrest. That's a lot more than the boxes were worth.