A man was arrested by Chinese custom officials at China's border when he tried to smuggle 94 iPhones into China by strapping them to his body. The act was foiled when custom officers noticed his weird walking posture.

After finding nothing suspicious in his two shopping bags, officials asked the man to pass through a metal detector — and the alarm went off loud and clear. The images show the man covered with dozens of handsets, held together under his outer clothes with clingfilm and tape.

Custom officers discovered both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S models and estimated the total value of the devices to exceed 300,000 yuan ($49,000 ; Rs. 30,87,000).

The smuggler, a Hong Kong citizen, was arrested at Futian post, an immigration port of entry in Shenzhen on the border between China and Hong Kong. Under Hong Kong law smuggling can warrant a seven-year prison time and a fine of $2 million. The "mobile armor' is a fairly common tactic for phone smugglers.

The man was mocked by netizen after pictures of his "iPhone armour" went viral. On China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo labelled the man 'Apple Man', using a Marvel's Iron Man Chinese character. "I just keep thinking this guy is trying to imitate Iron Man," one commented

The Apple iPhone 6 are made in China under contract before being shipped to countries around the world but purchasing one in the country is a challenge as it is very expensive than those sold in neighboring regions.  Even after the handset is available in China, many people smuggle foreign electronics to evade import taxes before reselling them for profit.

Source : Business Standard