Veteran line-sitter Jessica Mellow, who’s been camping out in front of the big glass cube of Apple’s (AAPL) Fifth Avenue store since last Thursday, reports that at 10 p.m. Wednesday  — a day and a half before the Friday morning launch of the iPhone 5 — a contingent of activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement showed up and began settling in for the night.

“They took about 20 spots, and they have nicer sleeping bags than we do,” she says. “I hear there are more on the way. All I know is that they are planning some sort of (peaceful) protest. They want to put up tents but I don’t think they will be allowed. And they are protesting Foxconn and slave labor in China.”

We checked it out: A postcard from Occupy Apple.

See also: iPhone 5: Customers in the Big Apple camp out 8 days early.