iPhone superfan camps out 36 hours at Clarendon Apple store

Joe Tenne, 43, waited  36 hours to buy a new iPhone 6 at the Clarendon Apple Store. Hundreds of people  waited in line Sept. 19, 2014 to buy the iPhone 6 at the Clarendon Apple  store. Joe Tenne photographed the iPhone  6 after Apple employees removed black curtains guarding the windows. The line for the phones snaked  around the Market Common Clarendon complex, nearly reaching the Crate & Barrel  store. Kevin Rheinheimer, 24, scanned  through his new iPhone 6 Sept. 19, 2014. Joe Tenne checked out his new  iPhone 6 shortly after buying it Sept. 19, 2014. Joe Tenne displayed his new  iPhone 6 shortly after buying it Sept. 19, 2014. He said he slept only five  hours in the 36 hours he waited.

Joe Tenne said good night to his wife and son Wednesday night and packed his black Tundra truck full of supplies for a camping trip — and then headed to the Clarendon Apple store.

Tenne, 43, was first in line at the 2700 Clarendon Blvd. store to buy the new iPhone 6. The Woodbridge resident who got a tweet of support from William Shatner arrived Wednesday at 8 p.m.

He was followed by hundreds of Apple fans who waited for the phones Friday morning.

“It’s a whole social experience, in addition to getting the phone,” Tenne, who runs an I.T. company, said minutes before the product went on sale.

The line at 8 a.m. snaked around the Market Common Clarendon complex, nearly reaching the Crate & Barrel store.

A photo of Tenne with a camp chair and cooler caught the eye of Shatner on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

“If you’re by the Clarendon Apple store & see this guy-bring him a coffee or offer to stand in for a bathroom break,” the actor tweeted.

Tenne said he used the restroom in the Apple store and at the nearby Starbucks, and ordered pizza with the second and third people in line — a couple from Alexandria who arrived at the store on Thursday at 11 p.m. Tenne, who has staked out the tech outpost for new products for the past three years, said appreciated the sense of community.

“I’ve met all the store managers and made a lot of friends.”

Apple employees ceremoniously removed black curtains from the shop windows, counted down the seconds until 8 a.m. and then let a first set of customers rush inside.

Tenne bought the faster, thinner iPhone and shook the hand of a staffer as he headed to his truck.

“See you next year,” she said.

Asked how he would spend the rest of the day, Tenne said he was headed back to Woodbridge.

“I’ll probably go home and play with it for 15 minutes and then go sleep for eight hours,” he said.

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