Gizchina reports that a team of Hong Kong bandits smuggled iPads and iPhones out of China, using crossbows and ziplines, until their ring was broken up by customs officials.

Which is surprising because, really, who would ever notice large bags, stuffed full of technology, soaring through the air?

The scheme must have seemed pretty slick to the smugglers trying to make a profit on the tax differences between Hong Kong and mainland China.

After attaching one end of some strong fishing line to the 21st floor of a high-rise building in Shenzhen, the crew shot the other end over the Sha Tau Kok river to a small rural house in Hong Kong.

With a crossbow.

Then, early in the morning, a pulley system was used to move bags containing iPad 2's and iPhone 4's across the line.

The smugglers might have continued to get away with it, too, if it wasn't for the meddling Chinese customs officers. The devious plot was foiled when officials finally noticed a 1000 foot long line going across a border river, from a skyscraper to a house, with lumpy bags sliding slowly through the dawn sky, and got suspicious.

The suspicions were confirmed when the officials confiscated over 50 iPads and iPhones, worth almost $50 thousand dollars.

Via TechCrunch

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