'Apple picking' theft of iPhones on rise on Seattle streets

SEATTLE -- Carol Sessoms was on the sidewalk on 6th Street in Seattle, texting her husband to pick her up, when a guy in a black hoodie snatched  her new iPhone right out her hand and bolted. It was caught on surveillance camera.

"I was in shock. I couldn't believe it had happened. I was like, this can't be happening to me,” Sessoms said Tuesday.

"There were two guys ahead of me and I yelled at them to stop that guy, that he had just stolen my phone,” she said.

What she didn’t know, said police detectives, was that the men she asked to help were actually in on the crime. They casually surrounded her, waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Apple Picking," as it's called, is becoming more common in downtown Seattle.