London’s phone theft epidemic shows no signs of abating, but as marauding gangs continue to prowl the city on a daily basis, some hardy locals have become too smart for the criminals.
Circling around London’s exclusive areas in the saddle of a moped or, more commonly, silent and illegally modified e-bikes, these ruthless phone snatchers will stop at nothing.
Speeding around corners and catching locals and tourists off guard, they pounce within seconds, leaving unwitting victims with zero time to react before they realise what has happened.
But as the crisis reaches breaking point, some Londoners are now so used to seeing the phone snatchers at work that they have adapted by holding their devices that much tighter as they walk around the capital.
A slew of videos have surfaced online of would-be victims beating the phone thieves by snatching the devices back off them or managing to hold on, sending the e-bike gangs on their way empty handed.
Among those who managed to hold onto their device is presenter Nicky Campbell who nearly had his phone nicked near Oxford Circus. The veteran broadcaster managed to grab his phone back after it was snatched from his hand before shouting ‘f*** you’ at the thief.
Unfortunately, these quick-thinking pedestrians are still in the minority, and gangs of phone snatchers are still at large, cashing in across the capital.
A number of MPs are now reported to have fallen victim to the muggers, who are typically captured on camera stealing devices around the upmarket Mayfair area and along Oxford Street.
The Government Whips’ Office has issued an edict to elected members warning them to be on their guard in the vicinity of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster after ‘a number’ of MPs were deprived of their mobiles.
Even as the Met cracks down on the phone snatchers and ministers urge phone firms to make their devices impossible to re-sell, the thieves continue to operate undeterred.
Spectators can only watch on as the thugs ride up behind or alongside their unsuspecting victims.
The scenario is always the same. Only the streets the change: a woman wandering along Southwark Street past a rack of Santander bicycles; a man strolling down Park Lane; a shopper in Oxford Street.
One second, their phone is in their hand. The next, it’s gone in a blur of black – tucked into a pocket or passed to an accomplice carrying other nicked devices.
Some run after the thieves. Others realise there’s no point and the device is long gone, likely on its way abroad to be taken apart and sold for parts if it cannot be unlocked.
Met Police figures suggest a mobile phone was stolen in the capital every six minutes last year in a seemingly uncontrollable surge.
Robberies have risen more than a third between October 2020 and September this year. But thefts – under which snatching would fall – have almost tripled from 23,106 in the year to September 2021 to 66,528 three years later.
Labour MP Chris Webb, by his own admission a ‘big lad’ at 6ft 2ins who would normally repel trouble, fell victim to a group of mobile muggers earlier this month.
He had been walking to a local shop to pick up a delivery close to his parliamentary property in London when a gang of bikers rode up alongside and snatched the phone from his pocket.
They had been ‘deadly silent,’ he said. The Met Police has since arrested two boys aged 16 and three aged 15 in connection with the incident, all of whom have since been bailed.
Some of the monstrous crooks have even been seen snatching phones from the hands of children.
London tour bus employee Ovye told recently: ‘It can happen to anyone. I once saw someone snatch a phone out of a little girl’s hand while she was taking a picture.
‘She can’t have been more than four years old. Unbelievable.’
Staff at the London Dungeon have been told by their managers to keep phones out of sight because of a spate of snatch thefts around Waterloo Station.
Dungeon worker Georgina Collier, 24, said: ‘We got an email a couple months ago warning us about the phone snatching.
‘We’ve been told to leave in pairs at the end of our shifts. Although it does happen in the morning too.
‘One of my colleagues had her phone snatched just around the corner.’
The crooks’ disguises and speed make them nigh-on untraceable to the point police chiefs have called on phone makers to do more to make the devices harder to unlock and sold on the black market.
The problem seems difficult to conquer when thieves can be away in seconds. But the Metropolitan Police appears to be catching on – bringing the fight back to the bikers one gang at a time.
One gang – made up of Kie Joyce, 21, and two 16-year-old boys who cannot be named for legal reasons – were caught in a Met Police sting launched last year following a spate of 35 bike thefts around Bermondsey and Greenwich.
In all, over £20,000 of tech had been stolen – and 30 of the 35 devices were returned to their owners.
The techniques used here are being rolled out across the city to target gangs in their hotspots – if a new video of a phone-snatch biker being cuffed in Oxford Street is anything to go by.
The clip, shot on November 6 outside the Superdry clothing shop, shows police turning a black electric dirt bike upside down as a man is handcuffed by officers.
And last week the Met issued a video of a phone thief on foot who pickpockets a man in Oxford Street – only to realise he’s been spotted by undercover police.
Keep Your Bag Secure
Use a bag with zips and keep it closed. A crossbody bag is a better option than a shoulder bag, making it harder for someone to grab. Keep backpacks in front of you in crowded areas.
Don’t Flash Your Phone
Pickpockets love smartphones, especially in back pockets or in plain sight. Avoid using your phone in crowded places unless necessary.
Watch Where You Place Your Belongings
Don’t leave your wallet, phone, or bag unattended in cafés or restaurants. Keep your bag on your lap or near your feet rather than on the back of a chair.
Carry Less Cash
Try not to carry large amounts of cash. If you need cash, keep it in a zipped compartment or a secure bag.
Stay Alert in Crowds
Crowded places like train stations, shopping centres, and tourist spots are perfect for pickpockets. Be aware of your surroundings, and don’t get distracted by sudden bumps or someone dropping something nearby.
Tips provided by Get Licensed
Sofian Hadar, 23, was tackled to the ground – and is now serving 11 months in prison.
Police say the best advice is to contact the police as quickly as possible after the theft has occurred as it maximises the chances of the criminals being brought to justice.
Among those caught is 20-year-old crook Amari Scott jailed for four years after police tracked him to a shop in Croydon, south London, hours after he had stolen two mobile phones with the help of two teenage accomplices.
Officers tracked him using one of the stolen phones’ location services.
Detective Superintendent Saj Hussain, who leads on phone robbery and theft in the Met, says the force is targeting hotspots with plain clothes cops for just this reason.
‘Met officers are targeting resources in hotspot areas with increased patrols and plain clothes officers – and this result makes clear this approach is having a positive impact.
‘We encourage people to report as soon as they can whenever they have been the victim of a robbery or theft so officers can attend the scene and investigate swiftly.’
research suggests crooks are deliberately hanging around high-value parts of London in the vicinity of Mayfair, Hyde Park and Oxford Street.
In July, an incident within the Hyde Park hotspot was captured on CCTV footage when an e-bike riding crook in all black crept up behind an unsuspecting man and swiped his phone.
And an incident reported in September saw a brazen phone snatcher steal a woman’s mobile in the middle of the day on Oxford Street before calmly taking off.
A man had his phone stolen at the same spot on July 29, also by a man in all black riding the same style of bike – which resembles a dirt bike with high ground clearance, perfect for bounding up and down pavements and weaving through traffic.
Met Police Commander Owain Richards described the thefts as ‘invasive’ and sometimes ‘violent’, adding that the regular hotspot areas include Westminster, Lambeth and Newham.
And Dep Supt Saj Hussain, the Metropolitan police’s lead officer for phone theft, told the Guardian last month the majority of victims are school-age children.
For those thinking of fighting back, he advises against it. Met figures suggest a quarter of snatch thefts involve a knife.
Horrifying recent footage of a stand-off in Tottenham Court Road shows a man yelling at a masked e-bike rider in the middle of the road clutching a huge, serrated combat-style blade.
DS Hussain is not surprised that London has become a hotspot for the so-called ‘i-jackers’.
‘It’s the largest metropolis, it’s the area that most people come to visit both nationally and internationally. It’s got a lot of footfall, especially tourists,’ he said.
‘We have some of the best transport networks in the world in London. The Elizabeth line has been wonderful for me to commute, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity for those that have been committing thefts elsewhere to come into London, which is a more lucrative market.
‘It’s the opportunists’ capital of the nation. You can’t change that.’
The phones are typically swiped by thugs to pawn off or send abroad, as recounted by a number of people on TikTok who share images of the Find My iPhone app showing their Apple devices travelling to China or other far-flung lands.
Emma Hall, 44, whose phone was pinched in Leyton High Street in north London, told earlier this year how her phone found itself in Shenzhen – the Asian country’s answer to Silicon Valley, such is its reputation for harbouring electronics businesses.
She recalled: ‘I had my phone in my jacket pocket and as I crossed the road I took my phone out, literally just to text my husband to say “get me a Prosecco, I’m on route”.
‘As soon as I did three lads on bikes went right past me on the pavement and one grabbed my phone.
‘The scary thing is they come so close and fast next to you. It was just so quick and I went over to the bar all shook up.’
Thieves have even been caught with bagfuls of phones swiped in a single spree, with the devices wrapped in tinfoil in a bid to deflect their signals and prevent them from being tracked by their owners.
Ministers have vowed to do more to tackle the spate of phone thefts by urging manufacturers to make devices harder to unlock, ‘designing out’ the ability for used handsets to be sold on.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said in September: ‘Phone companies must ensure that any stolen phones can be quickly, easily and permanently disabled, rather than re-registered for sale on the second-hand market, and we will be meeting them soon to discuss what further action is required to make that happen.
‘If we work together, government, tech companies and law enforcement can break the business model of the phone thieves and moped gangs who rely on this trade.’
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said last month he was encouraged by advancements by Google to make stolen Android phones harder to unlock.
But devices can be valuable even if they can’t be unlocked: stripped down for the fractions of grams of rare metals inside that can then be sold on to unscrupulous traders.
IT and cyber-security expert Thomas Balogun told there are pockets of gangs in the UK who will sell stolen phones to cyber criminals overseas.
‘There’s a strong demand for phone parts in China because of the larglae population. There’s also less stringent regulations around individual parts,’ he said.
‘Eighty-percent of the time it’s for the components in the phone, to refurbish someone else’s phone or to remake it into something else’.
The advice, as with all valuables, is the same as ever: be vigilant, keep phones out of sight, and make sure devices are locked down with a PIN code or facial and fingerprint recognition enabled to protect your data should the worst happen.