Google phones are still available and people are, apparently, willing to steal them.

At least that was the case in Huntington Beach earlier this afternoon. According to OC Register reporter Jon Cassidy, between five to seven people grabbed $1,000 worth of phones from a T-Mobile store in Huntington Beach. 

A witness scribbled down the license plate number and a police began pursuit.  How many cops chased the suspects? More than a dozen, according to Cassidy’s story. 

I called the store to find out what phones the theives actually wanted: Two Sidekicks and one Google phone, said store employee Ryan Sanders.

What a chase for 3 phones!

The Google phone, or the T-Mobile G1, went on sale two weeks ago and people all over Orange County stood in line to buy one. 

The interesting thing is that these three stolen phones were the used-and-abused demo phones in the store, not the nicely packaged boxes in the back. 

“It happens all the time,” Sanders told me. In fact, he added, this is the second time in many months.

The people who snatched the phones came in with wire cutters so they knew what they were doing. But when you take a demo phone, you can’t do too much with it. You can’t use it for very long because T-Mobile can cut off the service. You can resell it.

I guess they weren’t willing to stand in line two weeks ago when the G1 went on sale.

More Google phone stories:

• Review: 7 days with the Google phone
• Review: Fun with the Google Android Market
• Google phone? Yep, we got one — photos and first impressions
• See lots of pics of the new Google phone, the T-Mobile G1 (slideshow)
• Google Phone launches for $179, photos!
• Finally, T-Mobile speaks: 3G Internet coming to O.C.
• The Google phone is coming, here are your options

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