{"id":44765,"date":"2025-04-23T20:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T20:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44765\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T20:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T20:37:14","slug":"i-had-my-phone-snatched-in-central-london-and-chased-down-the-thief-i-ended-up-in-hospital-and-he-spent-700-on-my-phone-dont-make-the-same-mistake-i-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44765\/","title":{"rendered":"I had my phone snatched in central London and chased down the thief… I ended up in hospital and he spent \u00a3700 on my phone – don’t make the same mistake I did"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know the stats – I’ve written story after story documenting phone snatchings and studied clips of unassuming Brits having their devices nicked in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

The numbers are startling.\u00a0A massive 66,528 phones were stolen in the capital in the year leading up to September 2024, according to Met Police<\/a> statistics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the same period in Westminster, 22,253 thefts were reported. That equates to 85.4 incidents per every 1,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I never thought I’d become one of those figures… or end up in hospital, \u00a3700 down as a result.<\/p>\n

It had been a long week at work when myself and two colleagues – Adam Pogrund and Ciaran Foreman – decided to go for a couple of drinks to watch Arsenal vs Real Madrid on April 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In hindsight, if I’d have known the night was going to end in what felt like disaster, I never would have gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A couple of beers at a west London boozer turned into a taxi into central London and a trip to Soho’s Albert’s Schloss and The Roxy bars.<\/p>\n

It was a good night, as most are in London, and we didn’t leave The Roxy until the end of the night, 3am, when the club’s lights came on.<\/p>\n

\"Gethin <\/p>\n

Gethin Hicks has seen the shocking figures proving the extent of London’s phone snatching epidemic but never thought it would happen to him – until it did<\/p>\n

\"Between <\/p>\n

Between October 2023 and September 2024, a shocking 66,528 phones were stolen in London, according to statistics produced by the Met Police<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The \u00a350million-a-year phone theft crimewave has spiralled out of control in recent years with crooks raking in the cash by selling stolen devices on British soil or abroard<\/p>\n

But after a brief trip to the toilet, as again happens on most nights in the capital, I lost my mates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought it would be a bright idea to wait outside and catch them at the door – how wrong was I?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perched against a wall just yards from the club’s entrance, I was scrolling through my phone when I was approached by a man in his early 20s, no bigger than 5″10 and without a hood or balaclava. I think he had left the very same bar that I had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He didn’t look at all threatening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had two hands on my iPhone 13Pro, which I had bought just weeks earlier, when the young man started trying to chat to me. Perhaps tired after a long week, I wasn’t particularly interested in talking to him and so nodded briefly and continued scrolling.<\/p>\n

He asked me if I wanted to see something on his phone and momentarily passed his device into my right hand, leaving me with one phone in the palm of each of my hands – exactly what he wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s precisely when he snatched both devices from me and legged it down the street. Looking back, It was clearly not his first phone theft.<\/p>\n

\"My <\/p>\n

My phone was stolen at the end of a good night with my colleagues, Ciaran Foreman (left) and Adam Pogrund (right)<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The thief snatched my device outside The Roxy in central London, a bar in the centre of a hotspot for phone thefts<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After chasing after the thief, I ended up \u00a3700 worse off and in hospital with a badly sprained ankle\u00a0<\/p>\n

My first feeling was just panic. The pure horror of: ‘He’s got my phone’.<\/p>\n

So I jumped up and pelted after him as quick as I could.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I chased the thief around two corners, down a long road and was gaining on him when he took a right around a bend and I fell – straight on my ankle. That was it, I’d lost him – and my new phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in that moment I couldn’t feel my ‘badly sprained’ ankle. All I could think about was the fact that this thief had taken my phone, and it was unlocked when he’d snatched it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Someone later told me: ‘It’s the equivalent of having your wallet stolen back in the day.’<\/p>\n

But it’s not, it’s worse. It’s not just the fact that the thief can spend your money at will, it’s the invasion of privacy. Your life is on your phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I woke up the next day without a phone, unable to walk and with no choice but to hop to my local bank.<\/p>\n

When I arrived the blood drained from my face when they told me the thief had spent almost \u00a3500 on my card and \u00a3200 on my Uber account – the exact news which had kept me up the previous night as I lay phoneless in bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Workers <\/p>\n

Workers in central London have reported seeing victims left distraught on a daily basis after losing their phones to masked thieves<\/p>\n

After logging into Find My iPhone, I could infuriatingly see exactly where the thief had taken my phone<\/a> – it was in Woolwich, east London. But that was three hours before I logged in and the Met Police told me there was nothing they could do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A trip to St George’s Hospital the next day confirmed that I had a ‘good’ sprain on an already injured ankle and would be on crutches for the foreseeable.<\/p>\n

On the phone to my mum, in her usual worried fashion, she questioned: ‘Are you sure you haven’t been in a fight? Or can you just not believe that something this awful has happened to you?’<\/p>\n

And she was right, that’s exactly what it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I couldn’t believe that I had been so na\u00efve to have given the thief even a chance at taking my phone. I just didn’t for one moment think that I could be the next victim of a phone theft – I don’t think most people do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But looking back now, I realise it wasn’t my fault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In London especially, anyone can have their phone taken at any time they’re outside the comfort of their home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Workers in central London have reported seeing victims left distraught on a daily basis after losing their phones to masked thieves.<\/p>\n

The fairly new criminal practice has become part of a \u00a350million-a-year crimewave which sees thugs speeding around corners on scooters and bikes taking expensive phones from innocent citizens.<\/p>\n

I’ve reported my story to the Metropolitan Police, who are yet to make an arrest or retrieve my phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In recent months, the Met Police have brought about a reduction in the amount of devices stolen in London<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The police force have put such a success down to the deployment of ‘various operations’ involving monitoring CCTV footage, increasing officers’ awareness and ’employing’ traffic units and surge teams in crime hotspots<\/p>\n

I haven’t given up hope though.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent months, the Met Police have brought about a reduction in the amount of devices stolen in London.<\/a><\/p>\n

A 27% decrease was recorded in November 2024 while, in an even more promising statistic, a 43% decrease was achieved the following month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The police force have put such a success down to the deployment of ‘various operations’ involving monitoring CCTV footage, increasing officers’ awareness and ’employing’ traffic units and surge teams in crime hotspots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Westminster in particular, ‘really, really good’ CCTV coverage has been instrumental in helping officers track down the thieves plaguing London’s street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet despite such successes London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, affirmed that there is more to do to tackle the epidemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and re-used illegally,’ she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"More <\/p>\n

More still needs to be done, however, to stop brazen thieves plaguing the streets of London<\/p>\n

‘We’ll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.<\/p>\n

‘The success in tackling phone thefts comes after the Met moved out of special measures last month, following major improvements in many areas of service to London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘These include responding more quickly to emergencies and strengthening neighbourhood policing to better respond to communities’ concerns, including tackling theft and robberies.<\/p>\n

‘The Met is urging anyone who has lost or had stolen a phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via The Police National Mobile Property Register.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I know the stats – I’ve written story after story documenting phone snatchings and studied clips of unassuming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,92,393,4884,257,1413,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-44765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-met-police","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114389205467591579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}