London is Cracking Down on Large-Scale Cell Phone Theft

Pat, a usually savvy friend from your corner of the world, was sitting in a quiet corner table with a friend in a bar in Spain; set it down on the table for a minute and while sitting there with it inches from her hand...grabbed and gone.

KD, so sorry. Wishing you better fortunes on future trips!

Pat, great article! Unfortunately, the link doesn't work if you don't have an NYT account. Here is a link to gift it - feel free to swap this one for your link above (notice it has the word "unlocked" in it. And always click on the gift-boxed link when you "gift" an article, FYI).

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/world/europe/london-police-phone-theft-china-gang.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tk8.c1eT.tSFZMX-R13_e&smid=url-share

I especially liked this remark, and it's so true!

“You wouldn’t count your money on the street,” said Lawrence Sherman, an emeritus criminology professor at the University of Cambridge. “But when the phone is worth £1,000, it’s like pulling £1,000 out of your wallet and looking at it as you walk.”

Mardee, I did all that, but whatever. I'll just indicate, "see below". Thanks , as always, for everything.

It's a decent article. I'm not sure why they mention Lime Bikes though. Those are SLOW! You're not making a quick getaway on a Lime bike.

I think it was just a confluence of things. The availability of very fast e-bikes, the way phone use has progressed to some people having one in their hand constantly, combined with high demand abroad for phones made for a perfect storm in London the last few years. This article is the evidence of the Met Police taking it seriously, as they seem to have been doing in the last nine months or a year. They are talking a good game about enforcement now anyway, and I think they are stopping and nicking people much more proactively than they have done in the past to be fair.

They have been quite slow to react I thought. I could have told them five years ago that anyone dropping several grand on a Sur Ron (like a small electric dirt bike) was doing it because the return on investment as far as crime goes is so good. The Met even have their own Sur Ron unit, as much for PR as anything else I'd guess, that you can see in this video (Youtube, 13m 36s).

I think all crime waves that happen in big cities fade after a while. I think we're on the tail end of phone theft, in Westminster and The City at least. I think it's become a whole lot less attractive for folk on bikes to come up into Westminster to steal phones in the last six months or so. The City is a total bust. They have a separate police force and they've come down really hard to the point of stopping people who shouldn't really be being stopped. I think The City has reduced this type of crime.

Between the Met's enforcement on phone theft, and there's less folk involved in pickpocketing around in London in the winter, it's probably a bit better than it was earlier this year.

“You wouldn’t count your money on the street,” said Lawrence Sherman, an emeritus criminology professor at the University of Cambridge. “But when the phone is worth £1,000, it’s like pulling £1,000 out of your wallet and looking at it as you walk.”

What a strange way of putting it. I wonder how Prof. Sherman looks at those who wear GBP1,500 Aquascutum raincoats and GBP50,000 Rolex wristwatches. Not to mention driving even GBP10,000 Fiat Pandas. All can be stolen, and all are essential tools in the eyes of their owners, though probably none so useful in 2025 as a smartphone.

Bottom line: it's a tool. One doesn't lock up one's tools if doing so prevents their use. Instead one secures insurance to cover the cost of replacement.

I sat outside tonight with a friend at a local Eastern European restaurant, and we read and discussed the article... until my phone rang and I knocked over a wine glass, reaching for it across the table. My friend quietly slid her phone off the table and into her lap. We looked at each other and laughed. Okay. Its not London .... yet.

Its not London .... yet.

Budapest will never be London.