If someone steals your phone, admit it – it's your own fault

Whenever my wife and I try to figure out where we're going in London, she - like everyone else - will pull out her mobile phone, followed by my warning to grip her device extra tight. One stolen phone is enough.

- LIAM MURPHY-ROBLEDO

Recently, she’d just finished jogging and was logging into her phone when someone on a bike snatched it clean out of her hands. She tried to run after them, but she’d already completed her 5k.

London, in particular, is in the grip of a surge in phone thefts. According to the Met Police, more than 116,000 devices were stolen in 2024, which is about 13 thefts every hour. So much so that there are warnings painted onto streets, snappily titled “Mind the grab”, and Scotland Yard is testing super-fast e-bikes to be able to nab “phone snatchers” in 60 seconds. Elsewhere, a New York Times report recently described a two-week operation to bust a criminal operation shipping stolen phones to China, with police seizing £200,000 in cash.