$100,000 Worth of iPhone 5s Stolen in Japan

Thieves steal 200 iPhones prior to their launch on friday.

It would be quite an understatement to say people were excited for the recent iPhone 5 launch. With record breaking sales and lines starting eight days before release, Apple's latest phone is a hot commodity.

So hot, in fact, that several thieves in Japan have stolen over $100,000 worth of devices just hours before the product released to the public. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, approximately two hundred iPhone 5 devices were taken from retail stores in Osaka, Japan.

Three phone stores were hit in the early hours last Friday, with seventy-five iPhone 5s taken from two KDDI "au" brand retail stores and 116 devices stolen from a Softbank store.

Surprisingly, the robberies were anything but amateur, with the Softbank thieves stealing all 116 devices in less than four minutes. According to the report, the thieves broke into a locked back room at 4:24 a.m. and were out of the store by 4:28 a.m.

Japan wasn't the only place to fall victim to iPhone 5 burglaries. Approximately 250 handsets were also taken from an O2 store in London. All robberies are still under investigation, but it's unclear how or if pre-order customers are being compensated for the trouble.