(Image Source: WikiMediaCommons ) BY CANDICE AVILES If you’re in New York, you may want to keep a close eye on any Apple products you own. The New York Police Department and Apple are now teaming up to fight against Apple product theft. This move is due to a significant spike in Apple product thefts nationwide, according to the Huffington Post . “The New York Police Department said a rise in stolen Apple products -- nearly 4,000 more than the previous year -- caused a slight increase in the city’s annual crime index.” The New York Post breaks down how the process works. Once an Apple product is stolen, detectives get the tracking numbers of the item. “That number, known as the International Mobile Station Equity Identity, is then shared with the officers in Police Headquarters who pass it on to Apple... the company then informs the NYPD of the device’s current location.” But it’s not just New York. Other police stations are reporting similar trends including Chicago, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. The phenomenon of stolen apple products has even picked up the nickname “apple-picking.”  According to CNN , the NYPD’s detectives found that stolen apple products usually stay within the same state: “About 75% of them stay in the city of New York.” This effort to prevent “apple-picking” has been something long in the works.   TechCrunch reports, “along with Apple’s direct work with the NYPD, the wireless industry as a whole has been working to form a database of tracking numbers to help keep theft down, or at the very least, return as many stolen devices as possible.” But that effort won’t launch until November of 2013.