You hear of overseas muggings, and friends losing passports, but when you’re on your own holiday, you’re in vacation mode – what’s the worst that could happen?
I was visiting London with my partner and our young son in May. I was out for a run on a Saturday morning.
The sun was shining, the endorphins were flowing. I stopped to take a phone call on a footpath in Camberwell, in the city’s south, as to not wake my family sleeping at home.
I felt something brush past my right hand. Before I realized what had happened, a young man on a motorized bike wearing a balaclava turned back to me, holding my iPhone.
We locked eyes. He paused for a second, almost as if to give the brazen crime a second thought, before speeding off.
I gave chase for about two blocks — I was wearing my running shoes after all. The bike turned a corner, my phone was gone.
I ran back to our flat. My partner calmly helped me lock my phone, and lock the bank cards connected to it, while nursing a grumpy baby who had now been woken up.
I called the police, at the same time tracking the phone on my laptop using the ‘Find My’ app. I watched it ping across the city, before stopping at an address about 1.2 miles away. I gave the police that address, who said they would follow up, but didn’t hold much hope in retrieving the phone, and nor did I.
About 10 minutes went by, I sat there staring at the phone’s location – it hadn’t moved. Still in my running gear, I set off on foot.
I arrived at the address; it was a block of flats. I nearly gave up when I noticed a small path had been cleared around a building in an adjacent vacant block. Near a downpipe I found what looked like a brick wrapped in aluminium foil. I peeled back the wrapper and discovered six phones, including mine, inside.
Thankfully, minutes later, the police arrived, following up on the address I had given them earlier.
They said the offender had likely stolen all the phones that morning, and had stashed them to be picked up later by someone who would be able to wipe the devices and sell them on.
In response to my case, London’s Metropolitan Police said the city is “seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale”.
“This is fueled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said.
“In response, we have increased patrols in hotspot areas while officers are using phone-tracking data and intelligence to pursue those responsible.”
In a similar case in December last year, Izzy Du, a designer from Tottenham, got her phone back after it was stolen by an offender on a bike. She reported the theft to police, but unhappy with their response, took matters into her own hands. She tracked her device, and found it dumped in a bag in a hedge, along with six other phones.
“It’s just horrible, it’s the worst feeling when this actually happens to you,” Du said at the time.
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Phone theft in London is at a record high, with more that 81,000 phones stolen last year.
Data shared by the Metropolitan Police in June revealed that 37 people have their phones snatched each day, in the West End alone.
Victims are targeted in tourist hotspots including Scotland Yard, Bloomsbury, Holborn, Covent Garden, Shoreditch, Borough, London Bridge, Waterloo, South Bank, Camden Town, Regent’s Park and Stratford.
In April, the increase prompted the City of London to introduce ‘fake blue plaques’ to mark where phones had been stolen.
Police hope the signs will raise awareness and help reduce the $100 million-a-year trade in stolen phones in the capital.
I was lucky, I managed to get my phone back. While I certainly don’t recommend doing your own police work, I couldn’t help but think of all the photos, and memories from the trip that may have been lost if I had not been able to find it.
If you’re visiting London over summer be vigilant, and try to avoid getting your phone out on the street … as tempting as it may be to check Google Maps.
My advice – buy a lanyard. You can get a cheap one from any of those dodgy phone shops, which is where your phone will end up if you don’t.
Advice from police
· Register all phones with immobilise.com, external, a national property register
· Set up a strong password and two-factor authentication
· Turn off message previews so thieves cannot see any messages
· Write down and safely store the phone’s IMEI number
