California man's plan to hire homeless for iPhones ends in brawl

An overnight camp-out for the new iPhone turned chaotic when two men were arrested for fighting outside an Apple Store in California and a man's plan to hire homeless people to wait in line for the coveted devices backfired.

Tempers flared after a group of homeless people were recruited by an enterprising businessman to buy more of the coveted phones, but were then not paid for queuing up all night.

Dominoe Moody told the Los Angeles Times he was driven the 16 kilometres to Pasadena from Los Angeles with several vans of people to wait in line overnight.

"It didn't go right. I stood out here all night," Moody, 43, said, adding that he had no way to get back to Los Angeles. Most of those hired to wait in line were not paid by the man, he said, estimating that the man recruited up to 80 people, promising them each US$40, cigarettes and fast food.

When the doors to the store finally opened, the deal seemed to fall apart. According to various accounts, the businessman - who refused to identify himself - had arranged for the homeless people to be given vouchers enabling them to buy the phones.

"The phones are for me. I have a company that resells the phones for a profit. It's not against the law to buy them. I'm buying them at full retail price," he said, adding that he sold the devices overseas for more than US$1,000 each.

But he had not given his homeless hires money to actually buy the phones, so when they flooded the store, they found most of their vouchers useless. A mad scramble ensued.