I’m considering leaving London – phone robbers have made it terrifying
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/driven-out-london-phone-thieves-3237552?ico=most_popular&srsltid=AfmBOopBQYQ3HS_ermGdWWvw9__Yseewa0m3EPvvx9lG8Mb6Y1aBtYMP
Posted by Confident_West_7409
34 comments
Lol. How terrifying is just keeping your phone in your pocket or keeping your wits about you in a major city?
You don’t rob property you rob people. Until next time friends.
The insistent need for people to have a phone call holding like they’re on the apprentice, or live tiktokking makes it so easy. Main character syndrome means they’re oblivious to everything around them.
Obviously it shouldn’t be happening, but give shits an opportunity, and they’ll take it.
Literally just witnessed one this lunchtime.
The biker behind our car stole a phone out of the hands of someone wating to cross the road and sped off.
This was on Harley Street.
I’d be more worried about getting stabbed.
Since people seem determined to not read the article, I’ll add a pro-tip: the issue she’s complaining about is that no one is really bothering to stop phone thefts so they’ve essentially been decriminalized. Knowing that you can be the victim of a crime and no one will do anything about it is a bit terrifying.
I thought robbing phones was pointless these days as they all have tracking and devices that make it possible to brick them remotely
When I went to London last I kept my phone in a money belt. I also had a strong lanyard/tether but didn’t end up using it…
Or you could, you know..run the country properly so that we have a capital city where people actually have an incentive to not commit theft and phones aren’t getting stolen every 6 minutes?
I’m considering because of the rent..
Criminals commit this crime because there are no consequences to doing so. it’s actually a very small number of prolific offenders doing the vast majority of these phone snatches. Strict mandatory minimum sentencing would quickly take the prolific offenders off the streets, but the direction we’re heading in is for even softer sentences, so this epidemic of phone theft will continue for several years.
I always hold my phone with a full grip when walking around London
My phone got snatched in London but I’m still trying to move there! Trade? I mean, yes, I felt violated but some perspective, London is a world-class city.
Been in London for 20 years.
Never been robbed / stolen from.
Such a fucking easy crime to police as well, that’s the worst part.
All you have to do is send out a couple of police officers undercover onto the streets, and literally just make them walk with their phones out.
Within minutes (because it will be within minutes now), when it’s snatched out of their hands you pounce and catch them.
Unfortunately, the British police seem to be allergic to real police work.
Makes sense though, when you’ve got a choice between stopping those who violently traumatise innocent citizen by robbing them, or trawling through social media posts to find something someone somewhere will find offensive, is it really a choice? That’s the sort of thing you become an officer for.
It would be so satisfying if people rigged explosives to a remote trigger in empty phone cases. Not enough to kill obviously, just enough to scare the living shit out of them.
I mean phone robbers are deeply annoying but for the most part they snatch your phone and are cycling out of sight almost as soon as youve noticed whats happened.
I’d take that over the knife to the thoat surrounded by 30 kids type muggings of the early 00s anyday.
The best part about visiting London is leaving it.
The article talks about all UK phones being unlocked, which means unlocked to all UK networks. How are phones protected with PINs being resold, except for parts?
I don’t have or want one but this sounds like a good reason to invest in a smart watch. If you can call/text/GPS/music from your wrist while your phone is safely out of sight while out in public then it would reduce the opportunities for theft.
Top tip
1 don’t use same passcode for phone as you bank app
2 lock phone so if it is grabbed while unlocked they can’t change your password settings – eg Apple – https://support.apple.com/en-gb/120340#:~:text=Go%20to%20Settings%2C%20then%20tap,Device%20Protection%20on%20or%20off
3 be aware who’s around you
You can’t have nice things in the UK anymore and it makes me sad.
Cops useless everywhere
What I don’t understand is, you just log into your account and deactivate the phone and it becomes an expensive paper weight, no? Yes they can send it to China to be stripped down for parts but it’s not worth very much then. Maybe phone manufacturers should give the ability to self destruct the phone with a battery dump into the main board, but it may cause too many fires.
Meanwhile I went for a coffee in Dubai, the lady on the table next to me left her MacBook on the table for around 10 minutes as she walked off to do something else.
The UK isn’t a nice place to be.
That’s why I’ve resorted to never having my phone out in public. If someone calls me when I’m walking down the street, they’ll have to wait until I’m in a safe place before I consider calling them back
Visited London last month for the first time in about 6 years to show my kid the sights, saw two people get their phones stolen in two days, 1 over in Southwark and the other whilst waiting for our train back in the middle of St Pancreas station, both times the thief was off in seconds before anyone else knew what was going on.
I will also say I’m amazed they haven’t started stealing the headphones off people’s heads, the amount of people wearing Apple Max and Sony XM’s etc must surely be easy pickings too?
phones are very expensive, if apple\samsung\sony etc , made their devices more secure and trackable (when powered down) thieves would not find them as much of an easy target, Seriously people now walk around holding phones out on video and loud speaker calls just asking for them to be snatched, i grip my phone tightly and always look who is around before taking it out of my pocket in public.
Yes they try to rob you with your screen unlocked!! Be careful
They’re doing it to empty people’s bank accounts. It’s mental the lack of default security on banking apps on iPhones (as an android user). As far as I understand, if you’ve used biometric (face or finger) ID by default all your apps will be usable until the phone locks again. So if they steal an unlocked phone they can completely rinse you in a few minutes. You can turn this off but most people don’t even know it’s a security risk. Most android devices (afaik) will require a pin/fingerprint unlock each time you use a banking app, unless you literally opened it a minute ago. So they’d basically have to steal your phone whilst you had the banking app open. Seems mental. Happy to be corrected, but from what I’ve seen online this seems to be why apple users are targeted, and not because of the miniscule difference in resale value.
Edit: the above may be bullshit RE default security on iPhones. This wasn’t some iPhone v android flex, I’ve just never owned one.
Time for some vigilante justice
Amazes me people still go on their phones in public streets considering how big of a problem this has become. I’m at a point where I’ll only take out my phone if it’s for an important reason. And if I do I make sure I’m as quick as possible and have got a tight grip as possible.
Sadiq khan will ask Londoners to stop using phones at this rate.
Deffo getting worse! London has turned into a dangerous place now