London Centric reports on several Android users whose devices were rejected by thieves

London Centric:

While it might feel like London’s phone thieves will indiscriminately take any device they can get their hands on, there are a growing number of indicators that many of them are only interested in Apple iPhones.

Multiple capital-dwelling Android users who shared their stories with London Centric said they had been on an emotional journey after they were mugged — only to have their device handed back.

The report shares stories from some of these Android users in London, several of which owned Samsung Galaxy devices.

For example, there’s Sam’s story of being robbed by a group of eight men in January:

The thieves took Sam’s phone, his camera and even the beanie hat off his head. After checking Sam had nothing else on him, they started to run off.

What happened next was a surprise. With most of the gang already heading down the Old Kent Road, one turned around and handed Sam back his Android phone.

The thief bluntly told him why: “Don’t want no Samsung.”

Similarly, Galaxy owner Mark had his device stolen by a thief riding an e-bike.

Mark says, “I saw him stop, look at my phone, then throw it on the floor. He cycled off and I retrieved my phone.”

Another funny story highlights Simon, who had an unusually friendly stranger (and would-be thief) drop all interest in him after Simon pulled out his phone.

This led Simon to realize that his chance encounter was part of a potential mugging. “[Simon] overhead the would-be thief explaining to his apparent accomplice why they were giving up: “Phone’s dead, innit.””

As noted by John Gruber at Daring Fireball, iPhone-Android ownership in the UK is about 50-50. But clearly, at least because of high resale value, the iPhone remains a lot more desirable.

by OneNormalBloke

22 comments

  2. And here’s me thinking £100+ is a lot of money for phone

    It is imho and im not going to pay laptop prices for a phone, thats crazy

  3. So I need a decoy Android for when I’m out and about as then the chance of mugging reduces drastically? But surely high end Samsung (S25 Ultra?) would still be valuable so it is really the low end like the A17 being discarded?

    So basically, if the phone isn’t worth a penny, the thieves don’t care but if it is, they’ll take it and run – even if it is Android.

  4. Whilst this story is funny, i wouldnt put much faith in it. An expensive phone is an expensive phone, its going to get sold for money either way. But then again these could be the worst thieves in history or these guys had phones from 2009.

  5. Surprised the Android user didn’t explain why it was just as good as an iPhone and insist they take it

  6. This was bound to be exacerbated by the recent introduction of (NFC) ‘Tap & Pay’ facilities and it really should be that the onus is on the manufacturer to ensure the devices are safe and easily bricked after theft reports but the truth is that Apple et al simply do not make adequate efforts in this respect and the same goes for Police; there’s no point in a ‘Find my phone’ service if the Police fail to act upon that or other info.

  7. My phone was once rejected for being an iPhone 11

  9. >Another funny story

    London Centric and I have a different definition of the word ‘funny’. These encounters must be terrifying whether you get to keep your phone or not. I feel sorry for the victims

  10. I knew there was a reason that I stick with my cheap Chinese iPhone knock-off

  11. Few years back I had my Samsung phone snatched out my hand by dickhead on bike. It thew it back in front of me. So it does happen. 

  12. They didn’t give me my Samsung S8 back, but I did once find a £1k Sony phone that had been snatched and dumped.

  13. “Get a grip!” (Please tell me someone else is chronically online)

  14. There is a rather succesfull scam running to get iphone users to delete the account thus freeing the iphone ready for resale.
    Mail from china often with instructions how to do it, else….

  16. None of this is “a funny story”, country has gone to shit and London is basically a 3rd world state at this point.

  17. In the novel Jennifer Government, Nike covertly organises the assassination of people who buy their new sneakers, to drum up hype. Shoes so good people are willing to kill for them.

    I’m not saying Apple is deliberately keeping a raised floor on the resale price of their goods, but it would certainly help the brand.

  19. About 15 years ago my mate was mugged in London. The mugger asked for his phone.

    He had a Nokia 3210 with the keypad missing, he carried a nail with him to activate the keys.

    The mugger looked at it, punched my mate in the face then gave him back the phone and walk off.

  20. I’d actually be interested to know what they would do with a Pixel. 

    Because Pixels can have GrapheneOS and if you go off what the Spanish police have said in that they’ve noticed an uptick of criminals using GrapheneOS because essentially everything that makes Graphene great, is what makes it great for criminals as well. 

  21. Why not link the London centric original source rather than this article which just reposts it

  22. Is it because you can brick an Android remotely instantaneously if you can get to Google on any other device?

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