Businessman’s plan to hire homeless people to queue up for iPhones fails

Two persons were arrested last night by the Pasadena police as scuffles broke out among a group of people who had been camping overnight to buy the new iPhone,the UK's The Telegraph reported.

The people involved in the scuffle had been hired by a man to queue up for the coveted device, the report said.

According to Pasadena police Lt Jason Clawson, the man who hired dozens of homeless people at a downtown Los Angeles shelter to buy iPhones in bulk at a Pasadena store, ended up being mobbed after he failed to pay them.

Clawson added that one of the homeless men was placed on a 72-hour mental health hold after he ran into the street in an enrage state.

The would-be entrepreneur, whom the police did not name was carrying on his person a single bag stuffed with iPhones while being escorted into a police vehicle.

Clawson said the police were not investigating the incident and the man had not been cited as he did nothing illegal.

Meanwhile, AFP quoted a person who was recruited, as saying that most of them were not paid by the man, who, he said, had hired 70 to 80 people for the job.

In another incident a few hours earlier, at the same store, two men were arrested after getting into a fist-fight while in line, AFP said.

According to the man who had hired the people, the phones were for him. He told reporters he had a company that resold the phones for a higher profit adding that it was not against the law to buy them and he was buying them at full retail price.

He dded, he had sold them overseas for over $1000 each.