Nashua, NH — Police tasered a woman trying to purchase multiple iPhones in what may be a misunderstanding of Apple’s policy on purchasing limits.
The incident began when 44-year-old Xiajie Li, who does not understand English, went to the Pheasant Lane Mall Apple Store in Nashua, New Hampshire and purchased two iPhones reports CBS . She had hoped to purchase two more of the highly sought after smartphone at the time but was denied due to the store’s policy that limits iPhone purchases to two.
Li then tried to order the additional products online for in-store pick up.
When she showed up at the store to pick up her new iPhones, the manager of the Apple store would not give them to her and told her to leave the store. Not understanding what they were telling her, Li refused to leave the store and even took footage of other customers being allowed to purchase more than two phones.
The authorities were contacted, and officers attempted to escort her from the premises. Xianjie reportedly refused to go, although she had been issued a stay-away order by the Apple store, notes DigitalTrends .
After giving the woman 10 minutes to remove herself and cooperate with authorities, Li was tasered and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest. Nashua police captain Bruce Hansen told WCVB TV:
“If she left the store when she was told to leave the store, it would’ve been done at that. She was told she was under arrest after repeatedly being told to leave the store. She didn’t submit to the arrest. The officer used the taser on her to get her to submit to the arrest.”
Police are claiming they did no wrong and were not using excessive force in this instance. Hansen further says of the incident:
“For whatever reason the store didn’t want her there. And this time of the year, you got to do something pretty extreme to want a store owner to not want to do business with you.”
Her fiance John Hugo disagrees entirely telling CBS :
“They threw her on the ground, they threw her around, they bruised her all over the place, they handcuffed her way too hard.”
Footage of the officers attempting to escort Li and finally tasering the woman trying to purchase iPhones was posted on YouTube. The sound of the 44-year-old woman screaming could be heard throughout the mall.
She has hired a lawyer to fight charges against her.
While Apple previously had a limit of two phone purchases per customer, the limit was lifted earlier in the month. Apple has not commented on this particular case.
Li was found to be carrying $16,000 in cash at the time of her arrest. She says the iPhones were being purchased for her relatives back in her home country.
Nashua Police Chief John Seusing claims there have been issues with visitors buying multiple devices in order to sell overseas at an inflated price.
Do you believe that police were warranted in their actions of tasering the 44-year-old Li for wanting to purchase multiple iPhones, or did they take things too far?