Telephone snatchers are nonetheless concentrating on poor Londoners simply attempting to go for his or her morning run, regardless of the Met’s promise of a crackdown.
London has seen an upturn in cellphone snatching lately, with victims focused throughout customer hotspots and busy streets.
Newest footage exhibits a person working alongside when a thief, wearing all black, pulls up onto the pavement on an e-bike close to the river Thames.
The bike, which has noticeably thick tyres, swerves off the street and onto the pavement with pedestrians.
Quickly sufficient, the person’s cellphone is taken as he’s mid-stride, making him cease in his tracks and maintain his head in palms.
And this man is certainly one of 1000’s of victims in London. Whereas the Met has made vital progress in stopping snatchers, it’s clear extra must be performed.
A thief on a motorbike snatches a person’s cellphone while they had been strolling in London pic.twitter.com/Ekarx8a73P
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) June 25, 2025
What’s it like having your cellphone stolen?
Adele Pearson has had her cellphone stolen twice whereas out and about.
The TV producer had her cellphone first snatched by a person on an e-bike on London Bridge, adopted by one other theft in a pub simply two months after the primary incident.
She informed Metro beforehand: ‘She mentioned: ‘I’m a double sufferer, and it’s irritating it looks as if work to cease the cellphone snatching is barely simply beginning.
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‘I nonetheless don’t stroll down the streets the identical method, if I see a vacationer with their cellphone out I am going up and warn them.’
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The phone-snatching epidemic has turned many Londoner into involuntary heroes as they’ve tried to cease thieves.
Adele mentioned a bunch of builders ‘tried to chase the man down for me however he acquired away’ when she was focused on London Bridge.
Rutesh Durve was strolling into Piccadilly Circus tube station when his cellphone was snatched straight out of his palms.
He chased the thief down however realised it was too late, and only one week later his cellphone was in China.
Rutesh, who works in inventory markets, informed Metro: ‘I used to be strolling down the steps and was checking a couple of messages and with none warning a man on an e-bike wering a black hoodie and black garments together with his face lined and grabbed my cellphone.
‘By the point I had realised what had occurred he was so far-off and it was very crowded.
‘My spouse began receiving messages pretending to be Apple, with faux hyperlinks attempting to get her to enter my password – it was a complicated stage of workmanship.’
How many individuals have been caught?
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This week the Met introduced they managed to arrest 10 folks concerned in cellphone snatching gangs with their new Flying Squad.
On Thursday, 19 June eight males, aged between 20 and 31, and two 17-year-old boys had been arrested at addresses in London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft.
Detective Chief Inspector Laura Hillier, who’s main the investigation from the Met’s Flying Squad, mentioned: ‘Telephone theft has boomed globally, and London isn’t immune.
‘There’s a concerted effort by legal gangs to steal telephones and promote them abroad as a part of a multi-million-pound business.
How many individuals have had their cellphone snatched this yr?
Some 78,000 folks had telephones or baggage stolen from them on British streets within the yr to March 2024.
That may be a rise of greater than 150% on the 31,000 ‘snatch thefts’ within the 12 months earlier than, in keeping with information from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Figures additionally present that 4 in 5 police investigations had been closed earlier than a suspect was even discovered and simply 0.8% of ‘theft from the particular person’ complaints resulted in a cost.
The federal government has pledged to crackdown on the scourge, with the Dwelling Workplace saying it is going to work extra intently with tech corporations and police chiefs.
On this yr alone, 213 telephones have already been stolen within the Metropolis of London.
For a similar interval between 1 January and 30 April final yr, there have been 294 cellphone snatching studies.
‘The Met is catching extra of those criminals and operations comparable to this are important to disrupting offenders who trigger worry and distress to buy staff and communities.’
The power additionally carried out a two week focus at the beginning of the yr, resulting in the arrests of 292 folks.
In footage launched by the Metropolitan Police, one plain clothed police officer is seen recognizing a cellphone snatcher, in a darkish blue backwards baseball cap and black jacket in Oxford Circus.
The thief had focused an aged particular person within the vacationer sizzling spot, however one officer noticed the assault and tackled him to the bottom in entrance of shocked pedestrians.
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