Chicago man gets 5 years for $1M phone thefts

NEWARK, N.J. - A Chicago man who admitted he stole more than $1 million worth of iPhones and iPads from Verizon Wireless has been sentenced to more than five years in prison.

A federal judge in Newark sentenced Stephen Gunn on Thursday and ordered him to pay $2 million in restitution.

Gunn pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors say Gunn accessed online accounts of dozens of Verizon's customers in New Jersey and elsewhere and placed unauthorized orders for smartphones, accessories and other electronic products.

Gunn would have the products shipped via FedEx to addresses in Texas, including some addresses that didn't exist.

At Gunn's direction, two FedEx drivers intercepted the shipments, removed the contents and reshipped the contents to Illinois addresses he provided. Gunn paid each driver thousands of dollars.

In all, the U.S. attorney's office estimated, Gunn obtained about 1,700 items, including several hundred iPhones, iPads and BlackBerry devices.

The two drivers, Marion Samuel Perkins and George Greene Jr., pleaded guilty in Texas and have been sentenced to prison.