Phony iPhones Filled with Play-Doh: Police

» Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts.

Police in Auburn Hills found a backpack full of Apple iPhone boxes filled with Play-Doh and $500 in cash after investigating an unusual call about retail fraud last weekend.

In her blog, Police Chief Doreen Olko said the owners of the Metro PCS wireless communications store on Baldwin Road summoned police late last week after being taken on a deal to buy four supposedly brand-new iPhones from a group of individuals.

The boxes looked real enough, and appeared to have a factory plastic seal. But when the store owners opened the boxes, they discovered they had been hoodwinked. Instead of phones, the boxes contained bricks of Play-Doh modeling clay.

The store owners and Auburn Hills Police Department tried to set up a sting operation on Saturday. The store owners called the suspects under the guise of wanting to buy more phones, Olko wrote on her blog. When the suspects arrived at the store, Auburn Hills Police Officers Jennifer Carlson and Metter Smith were waiting.

The officers reported that the suspects became suspicious and fled on foot before the transaction could take place. After a chase, four people were apprehended and the phony clay iPhones, money and clothes they apparently had changed into were discovered in their rental car.

Three suspects have been arraigned on larceny charges related to the incident, according to WWJ/CBS Detroit.

Those charged include Tommy Hailey, 19, of Southfield, and Gregory Allen, 17, and Kejuan Gordan, 19, both of Redford. A fourth suspect, a 19-year-old man Redford man, remains under investigation, but has not been charged.