Apparently Cupertino’s dress code policy is to be blamed for this fiasco.

People are increasingly using social engineering to break into a secured environment, and I am not talking about just hackers. A number of thieves in New York City have adopted social engineering to help themselves to free Apple products from its brick and mortar stores.

Just like dressing appropriately and acting as if you belong there could actually make other believe that you in fact are part of the structure, thieves have adopted this social engineering approach to steal thousands of dollars worth of iPhones from Apple’s brick and mortar stores by just, as you guessed, dressing appropriately.

Dressing like Apple Store employees, thieves went straight to the storage drawers of Apple Store shops in NYC and emptied it – twice. An Apple Store on the Upper West Side had reported such incidents in March.

The thieves then walked away with 67 iPhones, worth at least $50,000. The latest heist happened in SoHo: yet again someone walked away with 19 iPhones from the company’s retail store.

DNAInfo has reported that the man and his accomplice walked into the store dressed as Apple employees. Strolled into the backroom, nabbed devices worth $16,130 and stuffed them in their shirts, and coolly walked out in plain view of customers and security cameras. The fact that iPhones are slim, must have come as a benefit for the thieves.

As noted by Gizmodo perhaps Apple’s uniform policy is to be blamed: Cupertino ensured that its store personnel wear themed shirts for the launch of new products or for every season.

Apple’s retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, tried to solve the problem by introducing blue shirts with tiny Apple logos on them for its in-store personnel. Unfortunately, the logos are pretty easy to duplicate and the shirts can be bought online.

Although thieves will find it hard to infiltrate smaller stores, larger locations though will still remain susceptible, until Apple stumbles on the brilliant idea of securing the storage area where its gadgets are stored for sales, instead of dreaming up color matching apparels for its store employees.