The iPhone is a hot commodity this holiday season. But is it worth the risk of being stunned with a Taser?
As surfaced by CNET, a 44-year-old Chinese woman from Newton, Mass., experienced just such an action after she tried to buy more iPhones than the Apple Store limit of two at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H.
While the accounts differ, Xiaojie Li, through an interview translated by her 12-year-old daughter with local news station WMUR-TV, said she was buying the iPhones for her family in China. When she was unable to buy more than two last Friday, she returned to the store on Tuesday to try to buy more.
Instead, the Apple Store apparently asked her to leave. (Li said she didn't understand what the store was asking.) When she didn't leave, the store called police to remove her. Police say she resisted arrest, and the video shows what happened next: The police used a stun gun on the woman, shown lying on the ground, struggling and screaming.
Li's fiance, John Hugo, tells the local news station in an interview with Li sitting by his side, "I was outraged. You go to a store to buy a phone. You end up getting brutalized by the police."
He added, "Is that proper procedure, beating her up? I beg to differ." He said they plan to fight the misdemeanor charges and may file a complaint against police.
Capt. Bruce Hansen of the Nashua Police Department saw another side, saying of Li's grasp of English, "She's certainly capable of coming up here and purchasing these things from the Apple Store here. Whether her language inhibited that, I really don't know."
Police said the store had been concerned about reports of resellers buying the iPhone and reselling it at a marked-up price overseas. Police claim Li had $16,000 in cash in her bag.
Li is due in court in January.