Where do all those stolen iPhones actually end up? According to a Financial Times investigation, many of them converge in one mysterious building in China—which has become a sort of unofficial magnet for missing phones from across North America and Europe. Forget detective novels: the journey of a pilfered iPhone might just be stranger than fiction.
The Feiyang Times Building: Ground Zero of Stolen Phones
Nestled in Huaqiangbei, a bustling subdistrict of Shenzhen right on the border with Hong Kong and home to the largest electronics marketplace in the world, stands the Feiyang Times Building—better known among those in the know as “the tower of stolen iPhones.” Suspicion about this tech hub has built thanks to Apple’s Find My app, which lets users locate their lost iPhones and, in some unfortunate cases, discover them all beeping in unison from this very commercial center.
On China’s east coast, all kinds of phone parts are recycled and resold at the busy stalls of Huaqiangbei. Yet the Feiyang Tower stands out: it offers not only second-hand phones but also spare parts from Western models. In fact, entire floors of the tower are dedicated solely to iPhones. Think of it as a grand bazaar where yesterday’s phone might be tomorrow’s parts.
A Global Market (With a Questionable Supply Chain)
This bizarrely specific market draws buyers from all over the world, especially from Asia and the Middle East, who arrive to purchase hundreds of devices at a time, often for resale at bargain prices in their own countries. According to the Financial Times, a huge variety—new, old, battered, barely used—of iPhones are stacked up high, ready for new owners.
A vendor insisted, “They were lost by their former owner.”
Meanwhile, the building’s managers chose not to comment on where the devices filling their stalls actually come from. (Let’s just say, their silence doesn’t exactly squash any rumors.)
The Hong Kong Connection: Phone Trafficking HQ
But the story doesn't end in Shenzhen. There’s a second, lesser-known tower acting as an upstream supplier, located at 1 Hung To Road in Hong Kong—a massive complex known in its own right as a destination for international wholesale phone buyers. Here, devices can be bought in bulk, right out of the carton.
The Financial Times describes the inside as a maze of offices where phones are piled in boxes, awaiting inspection by potential buyers. Many of the vendors at Feiyang Times Building reportedly get their supplies here before making the quick 30-kilometer trip north to Shenzhen. It’s a brisk and profitable commute across what is, in tech industry terms, the shortest “grey market” run imaginable.
In some of these offices, they came across boxes of iPhones labeled “Has ID” or “No ID”—a handy code referring to whether the phones are locked or unlocked. Finding devices still locked by their previous owners is an obvious sign that not everything in these boxes was, shall we say, voluntarily sold.
Locked, Unlocked, or Smashed for Parts
There’s a catch, of course. iPhones protected by a passcode, Face ID, or Apple’s iCloud lock are worth far less. As one buyer at 1 Hung To Road explained: “They sell for 70% less than an unlocked iPhone.”
Therefore, some resellers try to persuade the original owners to remotely unlock their phones, using hacking threats or phishing attempts. The tricks are numerous—and almost always shady—all with the goal of pumping up the resale value of the ill-gotten device. The warning here is dire: if your iPhone’s been stolen, be on high alert for any suspicious messages asking you for your Apple ID or location credentials.
If the original owner doesn’t fall for these ploys, the locked phone becomes useless in one piece and is simply broken down into components. Screens, batteries, casings, charging cables, and more—all end up being sold for a fraction of the device’s original price.
Notably, Shenzhen is one of the rare global markets where it’s actually profitable to resell these electronic components. Phones are shipped in from Hong Kong just a short hop away. Shoppers at the “stolen iPhone tower” come to Shenzhen with the goal of buying any iPhone they can find, whether intact or stripped for parts.
