Monday night a gang of thieves made off with 3,600 Pad minis at JFK Airport that had just arrived from China.

Shortly before midnight, the gang struck using one of the airport's own forklifts to load two pallets containing 1,800 tablets each onto a white tractor trailer bearing a CEVA logo. They might have made off with three more pallets had they not be interrupted by an airport worker.

The Post put the value of the haul at $1.5 million -- $417 per mini -- although fences don't usually pay full price for stolen Apple products.

Investigators suspect that this was an inside job. Going on the theory that someone with security clearance let the thieves in and out, three airport workers have already subjected to polygraph tests.

Cargo Building 261, where the iPads were stored, was the site 24 years earlier of the $5 million "Lufthansa" heist recreated in Martin Scorcese's Goodfellas.

The thieves were still at large as of this writing.