Phone snatchers are still targeting poor Londoners just trying to go for their morning run, despite the Met’s promise of a crackdown.
London has seen an upturn in phone snatching in recent years, with victims targeted across visitor hotspots and busy streets.
Latest footage shows a man running along when a thief, dressed in all black, pulls up onto the pavement on an e-bike near the river Thames.
The bike, which has noticeably thick tyres, swerves off the road and onto the pavement with pedestrians.
Soon enough, the man’s phone is taken as he is mid-stride, making him stop in his tracks and hold his head in hands.
And this man is one of thousands of victims in London. While the Met has made significant progress in stopping snatchers, it is clear more needs to be done.
What’s it like having your phone stolen?
Adele Pearson has had her phone stolen twice while out and about.
The TV producer had her phone first snatched by a man on an e-bike on London Bridge, followed by another theft in a pub just two months after the first incident.
She told Metro previously: ‘She said: ‘I am a double victim, and it’s frustrating it seems like work to stop the phone snatching is only just starting.
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‘I still don’t walk down the streets the same way, if I see a tourist with their phone out I go up and warn them.’
The phone-snatching epidemic has turned many Londoner into involuntary heroes as they have tried to stop thieves.
Adele said a group of builders ‘tried to chase the guy down for me but he got away’ when she was targeted on London Bridge.
Rutesh Durve was walking into Piccadilly Circus tube station when his phone was snatched straight out of his hands.
He chased the thief down but realised it was too late, and just one week later his phone was in China.
Rutesh, who works in stock markets, told Metro: ‘I was walking down the steps and was checking a few messages and without any warning a guy on an e-bike wering a black hoodie and black clothes with his face covered and grabbed my phone.
‘By the time I had realised what had happened he was so far away and it was very crowded.
‘My wife started receiving messages pretending to be Apple, with fake links trying to get her to input my password – it was a sophisticated level of workmanship.’
How many people have been caught?
This week the Met announced they managed to arrest 10 people involved in phone snatching gangs with their new Flying Squad.
On Thursday, 19 June eight men, aged between 20 and 31, and two 17-year-old boys were arrested at addresses in London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Detective Chief Inspector Laura Hillier, who is leading the investigation from the Met’s Flying Squad, said: ‘Phone robbery has boomed globally, and London is not immune.
‘There is a concerted effort by criminal gangs to steal phones and sell them overseas as part of a multi-million-pound industry.
How many people have had their phone snatched this year?
Some 78,000 people had phones or bags stolen from them on British streets in the year to March 2024.
That is a rise of more than 150% on the 31,000 ‘snatch thefts’ in the 12 months before, according to data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Figures also show that four in five police investigations were closed before a suspect was even found and just 0.8% of ‘theft from the person’ complaints resulted in a charge.
The government has pledged to crackdown on the scourge, with the Home Office saying it will work more closely with tech firms and police chiefs.
In this year alone, 213 phones have already been stolen in the City of London.
For the same period between 1 January and 30 April last year, there were 294 phone snatching reports.
‘The Met is catching more of these criminals and operations such as this are vital to disrupting offenders who cause fear and misery to shop workers and communities.’
The force also carried out a two week focus at the start of the year, leading to the arrests of 292 people.
In footage released by the Metropolitan Police, one plain clothed police officer is seen spotting a phone snatcher, in a dark blue backwards baseball cap and black jacket in Oxford Circus.
The thief had targeted an elderly person in the tourist hot spot, but one officer spotted the attack and tackled him to the ground in front of shocked pedestrians.
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