I didn't finish the entire article, but my immediate thought was that this has something to do with these new phone drop spots that I've seen at grocery stores.

I didn't finish the entire article, but my immediate thought was that this has something to do with these new phone drop spots that I've seen at grocery stores. You apparently can just put a phone in one of these ATM-like machines and get money out, which immediately struck me as a clever way to buy stolen phones on the cheap from criminals, with indemnity... which would definitely lead to situations like this when those stolen phones are resold to unsuspecting consumers.