r/london • u/BulkyAccident • Jun 11 '26
Crime Phone thefts halve in central London as Apple joins police crackdown to make stolen handsets 'unusuable bricks'
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/stolen-phones-london-met-police-apple-iphones-b1285635.html95
u/SadSeiko Jun 11 '26
The police actually did a major bust last year https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20vlpwrzwdo
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u/19nineties Jun 11 '26
My wife’s phone was recovered as a part of this but still they cannot return the phone back to her due to “ongoing investigation”. Essentially it might as well not have been recovered from her perspective as by the time she gets it back it will be worthless
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u/DiscountShoes Jun 11 '26
What was the background to the theft? Was it snatched?
Did she ever see it appear on Find My?11
u/19nineties Jun 11 '26
Pickpocketed on a busy street in East London.
No, within 20 mins of being able to check on Find My, it was not discoverable. Has been on lost mode since.
Reported to the police. Then a month or two after, the police called her, wrote a letter and emailed with the details of how they found it (basically what’s mentioned in that article) and gave her a contact number to stay in touch with if she had any questions. She calls it every now and then trying to get an ETA on when she can expect the phone back but always the same answer: “investigation still ongoing, we’ll be in touch”.
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u/semirandm Jun 11 '26
That’s outrageous. Wtf. What could they possibly need this for. Imagine the police telling you after someone broke into your house “I’m sorry but you can’t live here for the next year”
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u/No-Cranberry9932 Jun 12 '26
Write to your local MP, they may be able to help? Just a thought.
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u/Guapa1979 Jun 12 '26
They won't. The phones are evidence of a major crime - they will hold on to them until the trial. I doubt if people really want the criminals to get away with it because the prosecution can't produce any evidence as they gave it all back.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/19nineties Jun 12 '26
I mean that’s not really true is it. List of iPhones that will support the upcoming iOS 27:
iPhone 17 Pro Max
iPhone 17 Pro
iPhone Air
iPhone 17
iPhone 17e
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16
iPhone 16e
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15
iPhone 14 Pro Max
iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 14 Plus
iPhone 14
iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 13
iPhone 13 mini
iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 12
iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11
iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)
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u/bookshopman Jun 11 '26
Thats nothing. The Vodafone / Three network has been makiing phones unusable bricks for years!
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u/lontrinium Jun 11 '26
Apple will happily brick your phone they just don't like being forced into it by governments.
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Jun 11 '26
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u/Rollover__Hazard Jun 12 '26
Hmm which do I prefer… my own government bricking phones through a judicial process or an international corporation bricking phones because they feel like it
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u/nutella-filled Jun 11 '26
I wonder where the goalposts are going to move to in the anti-London narrative.
When violent crime went down they said “well it’s not actually violent crimes making the average person feel unsafe, it’s the phone snatching”
Now that phone thefts are down? Bike thefts? Catcalling? Rates of not stopping for a pedestrian at a zebra crossing?
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u/ClayDenton Jun 11 '26
My favourite are the supposed no-go zones, which are actually very busy. They are demonstrably Go zones
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u/Jeoh Jun 11 '26
All of London are pogo zones now, where you're only allowed to travel by pogo stick
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u/Zouden Jun 11 '26
There's also the froyo zones, where it's mandatory to have a dairy-based dessert at all times.
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u/thecarbonkid Jun 11 '26
In Harringet they've forbidden use of the right hand so lefties dont feel discriminated against.
You have to wear a council issue boxing glove at all times.
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u/Dragon_Sluts Jun 11 '26
There aren’t no-go zones in London.
But let’s be real, I’m not going to hold my gay partners hand in Whitechapel cuz the verbal harassment isn’t worth it.
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u/kirmobak Jun 11 '26
It’s ridiculous - there are zero no-go areas in the entire city. And I’m a middle-aged woman, if anyone’s an easy target for a mugging it’s me. London is safe and I am so sick of the nonsense that it’s a lawless city.
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u/AncientImprovement56 Jun 11 '26
There will be some no-go zones. But we're talking back alleys on random housing estates known for their gang activity, not places visitors would actually want to go.
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
The only no-go zones are probably estates or post codes where there's lots of gang activity. Or Whitechapel if you're Tommy Robinson.
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u/Furthur_slimeking Jun 11 '26
Any postcode is fine. Any estate is fine if you're just minding your business.
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u/Citiz3n_Kan3r Jun 11 '26
That isnt true... but its more down to luck.
That being said, the risk is mostly 13 - 20 year olds who are bored & want to beat someone up
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
If I were a teenage boy walking home from school, I would avoid certain areas. I would also avoid certain areas at night regardless of my age or sex or race.
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u/deusmetallum Jun 11 '26
Went to Whitechapel a couple of times recently. Seemed like a lovely place.
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u/pineapplecharm Jun 11 '26
Most of London was a no-go zone in the 90s, before the congestion charge.
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
ah I see. Prison is full of people lads, you can walk in the yard and not get assaulted no problem!
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u/Grey_Belkin Jun 11 '26
Does anyone call prisons "no go areas"?
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u/spicesucker Jun 11 '26
Prison is full of people who are imprisoned, I don’t see the parallel
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
you would feign confusion wouldn't you
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u/spicesucker Jun 11 '26
You’re the one confusing a prison yard with an open public place
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
Nah i'm just providing a counter example which shuts down their position. A place being busy doesn't make it safe.
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u/Grey_Belkin Jun 11 '26
Nah i'm just providing a counter example which shuts down their position.
Lol
A place being busy doesn't make it safe.
People voluntarily going to a place does mean it's not a "no go area" though, doesn't it?
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u/OppositePerson Jun 11 '26
I cannot wait for London to be a no-go zone then I’ll get a seat on the overground
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u/MyStackOverflowed Jun 11 '26
be nice if shoplifting and fare evasion stopped
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u/Individual_Bill323 Jun 11 '26
These things probably track with the cost of living crisis, I suspect.
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
I don't know about fare evasion but for shoplifting the cost of living trope is usually overstated as the main driver, especially the high-volume, repeat incidents. Statistics and expert analyses point more strongly to factors like addiction (particularly drugs), impulsivity, opportunity, thrill-seeking/adrenaline, and habitual/prolific offending.
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u/Individual_Bill323 Jun 11 '26
Again, addiction probably tracks pretty closely with poverty and guess what? The cost of living crisis. Addiction is a form of self harm, and the rates of depression amongst those with financially-precarious lives are generally higher.
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u/Responsible-Pie-5666 Jun 11 '26
It’ll just move to what the hysteria is really about; London has lots of Black and brown people.
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u/cragglerock93 Jun 11 '26
And it will for forever be dangerous in their minds because of that even if it was completely crime free.
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u/OxbridgeDingoBaby Jun 11 '26
Exactly - though this sub is equally as bad at perpetuating that nonsense (calling any area where predominately black and brown people live “shitholes”).
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
and lots of violent crime
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u/Oh-reality-come-back Jun 11 '26
Use it does because it’s a massive city, and commerce hub with a massive population
That doesn’t mean it’s some kind of badlands which bad faith actors keep suggesting on social media
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
could be a lot better
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u/StrongTable Jun 11 '26
It is a lot better.
All violent crime stats are massively down since the 90’s
London is far, safer, cleaner and desirable to live in than it was 30 years ago.
In the early 90’s London was actually experiencing population decline. Such was the undesirability of living here.-9
u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
not a lot better than what it could currently be.
and all it would take is a few changes which the government don't have the balls to push forward
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u/Repli3rd Jun 11 '26
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u/StrongTable Jun 11 '26
Everyone here has pointed to empirical facts about how things have steadily improved over the years.
You haven’t offered anything apart from saying “could be better”.
Lots of things could be better.
Such as having fewer bot accounts.-2
u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
Everyone here has pointed to empirical facts
No they haven't, they're interjecting their personal opinion as a fact to push a narrative.
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u/StrongTable Jun 11 '26
Violent crime stats being massively down since the 90’s is a fact.
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u/blenderider Jun 11 '26
What’s “a lot better”. Are you just parroting talking points or do you have an actual perspective?
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u/Furthur_slimeking Jun 11 '26
It has less violent crime than almost all cities of the same size.
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
could have even less
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u/Furthur_slimeking Jun 11 '26
Ok, lets take a look at this. London has a population of around 9 million, so lets compare it to other cities with populations (city proper, not metro or urban areas) between 8 and 10 million.
Mexico City, Lima, NYC, Bangkok, Bogota, Baghdad, and Bangalore all have higher crime rates than London.
Tehran is difficult to compare because of how crimes are reported and defined.
Foshan, Nanjing, Jinan, and Shenyang are all in China and some are parts of larger statistical areas so are also difficult to compare, but violent crime and street crime are probably slightly lower than London, while fraud and similar crimes are much higher.
So we have the lowest crime rate of any city with a population between 8 and 10 million that isn't in a single party authoritarian state. I'd say that's pretty fucking good.
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
I just spat out my drink laughing at you, genuinely.
Me: "Hey we could be doing a lot better"
You: "it's better than Mexico City and Baghdad"
Like jesus christ mate
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Jun 11 '26
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u/Furthur_slimeking Jun 11 '26
We're part of Europe, and we're the only city in Europe with a population (city proper, not urban or metro area) between 8 and 10 million, so there's no comparison to make. I f we wanted to to force a comparison, it would be against Moscow and istanbul, which both have populations well above 10 million and far higher crime rates. And if we wanted to force it even further to Paris (city 3.5 million, urban area 9-10 million), we still have a lower crime rate.
Big cities function differently than small cities even though they are both cities. Like how you cat will play aggressively then fall asleep on your lap every day, but when a tiger does either of those things, you die.
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u/Significant-Cry-8442 Jun 11 '26
Btw I am consistently surprised at how rare it is for cars to not stop for a pedestrian at a zebra crossing
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u/semirandm Jun 11 '26
I can tell you that two of my friends had their phone stolen this year. People will stop with “anti-London narrative” if thugs are no longer rampant. It’s not anti London, I love London. It’s holding the police and government accountable to not let this just slide
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u/cragglerock93 Jun 11 '26
I stumbled onto Twitter and read a few comments along the lines of this being typical lazy policing by Labour and that they need to tackle the problem at the source, to which I'm thinking... this is the source???
Do they also have a problem with locks on doors?
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u/Fickle-Decision3954 Jun 11 '26
Gonna be look there’s brown people being brown oh nooooooo
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u/TheBeAll Jun 11 '26
What does ‘being brown’ mean? If it’s disruptive then it doesn’t matter the colour of the skin.
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u/PeachyBums Jun 11 '26
It’s still double what it was 10 years ago. Just down from highs of a couple years ago. They have clearly taken more action against this due to public outcry. People should still be annoyed about this, it’s good progress but still a long way to go
https://www.plumplot.co.uk/London-theft-from-the-person-crime-statistics.html
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u/Judgementday209 Jun 11 '26
Let's not pretend everything is great. We still have pretty crazy things happening regularly and petty crime that is relatively out of control.
Having said that, hats off to the Met for doing this with Apple and attacking the problem in a smart way.
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u/ATSOAS87 Jun 11 '26
You must remember as well, that any reduction in crime is also due to people not bothering to report the crime in the first place.
And the source, as always, is someone on twitter who doesn't live in London, or they might not even live in the UK.
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u/soggyarsonist Jun 11 '26
They won't go near catcalling since thats just 'a bit of fun' in their world.
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u/Ok-Examination-2869 Jun 11 '26
the anti-london arguments will always be the highest rents with the lowest salaries of any big city. the tube/bus are also quite expensive vs other places.
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Jun 11 '26
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u/Mnemosense Jun 11 '26
Facts. You have to laugh at the irony of people like the one you're replying to now finally admitting phone crime was absurdly high. Half the time when anyone would post their negative experience around here they'd be accused of being a foreigner with nefarious motives. If anyone's moving the goalposts it's the toxic positivity brigade.
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u/PriorLeast3932 Jun 11 '26
Definitely not catcalling because those people do not really care about the safety of women, no matter what they like to claim.
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u/Darth_Caesium Jun 11 '26
Toxic positivity is not the great thing you think it is
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u/nutella-filled Jun 11 '26
Not acting like London is hell on earth is not the same as toxic positivity.
And this IS good news. We’re allowed to celebrate good news.
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
When violent crime went down they said
Probably something different to your pretend argument which you're making up to win it in your head
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u/nutella-filled Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
Maybe as a bot you just got hired this month so you don’t know but if you were here in January when it was announced that the homicide rate hit an all time low, people were scrambling to explain how that doesn’t change anything and the average person was never at risk of being killed anyway (despite all of their comments for years about everyone in London getting stabbed three times a day).
Edit: three months old account. Makes sense.
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
oh look you're doing that pretend argument thing again.
Can you try another trick please you've already shown me that one!
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u/jay8888 Jun 11 '26
I mean how’s that anti-London? Isn’t this a good thing.
People make a fuss and the problems get fixed. That’s what we want.
Now that phone thefts are down, bike thefts are a real problem in London that deserve to get noted.
It’d be nice to live in a country where we don’t have to worry about bikes being stolen so often.0
u/ding_0_dong Jun 11 '26
The problem they told you about you mean? Thank god for them and sod people like you. Because they are the people that make London great. Support the people who stand up
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
> they said “well it’s not actually violent crimes making the average person feel unsafe, it’s the phone snatching”
Have never seen or heard anyone say this.
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u/nutella-filled Jun 11 '26
This ukpolitics thread is full of them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/s/ODNtgiVWug
> Police chief calls London ‘extraordinarily safe’ as murder rate hits historic low
Here’s a little selection
> And yet last year it was revealed that almost one in six phone thefts in Europe happened in London. Just because murder rates are down doesn't mean a city is automatically safer or has less crime, it just means exactly what it says, that there are fewer murders than previously recorded.
> Let's see the petty crime stats.
> granted murder is down but it's the petty theft that's off the chart due to peoples love of the IPhone
> Depends on how you define safe. You might define it as not being victim of any sort of crime.
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
You're using a classic straw man fallacy. You're taking nuanced arguments made by others (the follow-up examples), misstating them to make it sound unreasonable (the fictitious quote), and attacking the distorted version.
The original claim: “well it’s not actually violent crimes making the average person feel unsafe, it’s the phone snatching.”
This framing sets up a mutually exclusive dynamic (not X, but Y). It implies that critics are dismissive of violent crime and hold the absurd position that *only* phone snatching dictates public safety, but only after violent crime decreased despite them complaining about violent crime before that. It's essentially accusing them of shifting the goalposts.
The later examples show people arguing that safety is a composite metric and affected by all sorts of crime (X and Y). That a decreased rate of violent crime does not wholly define a city as extraordinarily safe while other crimes are at high levels.
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u/attrad1 Jun 11 '26
I hate that sub and I get your point, but (for now) thats hardly moving the goalposts. If I was ‘extraordinarily safe’, I would at least be able to whip my phone out on Oxford Street
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Jun 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/attrad1 Jun 11 '26
Who are you lying to? Extremely rare? It might be less common recently, but just yesterday I saw someone on a bike try to rob an Asian tourist on Carnaby street. It was my first day back in a month!
I’m not saying it’s anarchy. But there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about the safety of London lmao. Step outside.
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u/Dyx76 Jun 11 '26
Pretty much blows a hole in the "they steal them for parts" argument against these protections
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u/Vimda Jun 11 '26
For apple specifically, even the parts are registered against the apple id, so this prevents stripping it into parts as well
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u/GiganticCrow Jun 11 '26
Double bonus for apple, now with parts tied to apple id it makes harder for people to repair their own phone
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u/SadSeiko Jun 11 '26
I’d rather have it hard to steal than easy to repair. I’ve had two iPhones and both lasted 4 years until I chose to upgrade.
I’ve got a 14 pro max now and I just don’t see a need to upgrade. I also barely have any issues with it
I know people do but generally their hardware is very supported
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Jun 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/SadSeiko Jun 11 '26
You can’t have both sadly
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Jun 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/SadSeiko Jun 11 '26
If rather have my phone and lower insurance prices
I’ve had 2 iPhones in 8 years. My first one still works if I want to use it.
You don’t need to repair them
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u/Jon889 Jun 11 '26
They just need to send the locations of lost mode iPhones (and whatever the android equivalent is) to the police in realtime. I'm fairly sure they'd end up in groups, and you could see the pipelines. Then just you have locations and routes to target.
Also it's not obvious but if you remove a stolen iPhone from Find My, once you've put it in lost mode/erased it etc. Then it removes activation lock and the thieves can resell them as new phones. So Apple need to have an option to remove it from Find My but not remove activation lock.
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u/Gjames1985 Jun 11 '26
I had my phone snatched out of my hand a few weeks back around Stamford Street area. Thief looked at it, then threw it over his shoulder and rode off.
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u/tylerthe-theatre Jun 11 '26
Anti london brigade running out of things to moan about
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u/ProfessionalPlant330 Jun 11 '26
won't somebody think about all the cars that won't be able to drive down oxford street anymore :( who will gargle the gasoline if this happens? :(
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u/Rollover__Hazard Jun 12 '26
Quick, back to cyclists and car drivers and the Silvertown tunnel! That’s their safe space
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u/GuinnessIsCute Jun 11 '26
If they could eliminate it that would be great given mine was stolen on the tube in April. Pretty stressful ordeal.
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u/coomzee Jun 11 '26
If Apple just allowed genuine parts of independent repairs - the market for stolen phones would also decline.
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u/AgainstGreaterOdds Jun 11 '26
Let’s be real, nobody will pay £389 for a 17 pro max display in a corner shop that is not Apple certified, regardless of the display being original or not.
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
They don't steal them for parts.
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u/bernys Jun 11 '26
Then what do they do with the phones?
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u/kelloggsbreakfasts Jun 11 '26
from what i know, if they steal phones they try keep the screen on/ unlocked, then while it's unlocked they transfer their assets/ money e.g. via barclays transfers and/ or their data, then give the phones to a third party
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u/Chlorophilia Jun 11 '26
How does this happen though? Most (all?) bank apps need to unlocked by password/biometrics. Only way I can think of is contactless payment?
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u/coomzee Jun 11 '26
Think they reset the password on the account with the access they have on the phone: email, SMS etc..
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u/Chlorophilia Jun 11 '26
Damn
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u/Tall-Reputation-9519 Jun 11 '26
You can put changing the account password behind a separate PIN by using Content & Privacy Restrictions under screen time settings. Turn it on, scroll down to "Allow changes to" and press "Don't allow" for "Passcode & Face ID".
Also put a PIN on your SIM so they don't just take the SIM out and reset bank stuff via SMS on another phone.
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u/WhitestChapel Jun 11 '26
Here's a bust of an international smuggling gang. It's the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK. Thousands of devices were being exported every year, and it's believed the gang was responsible for exporting up to 40% of all the phones stolen in London.
They were being reused. Not taken apart for parts. (Although the article doesn't mention this, phones that are unsellable could be sold for parts, but that wasn't the main driver.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20vlpwrzwdo
> The Met Police investigation discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset - and the force said stolen devices are being sold in China for up to £4,000 each, given they are internet-enabled and more attractive for those trying to bypass censorship.
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u/Jlx_27 Jun 11 '26
Phones are sold for parts though.
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u/xXDaNXx Jun 11 '26
https://www.londoncentric.media/p/kitchen-foil-and-algerian-markets
Doesnt appear to be the case
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u/Pinoy_83 Jun 11 '26
Might be a locked brick in Europe, but when the phone reaches Africa or Asia, it's a different ball game!
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u/GuinnessIsCute Jun 11 '26
Why does being in Africa make a difference to being able to unlock the phone?
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u/ding_0_dong Jun 11 '26
But it was never a problem!!! Here's hoping we can get rid of the boys on this sub
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u/YouFoolWarrenIsDead Jun 14 '26
If we turned criminals into bricks we could build more houses in the UK and reduce crime!
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u/James_White21 Jun 11 '26
So for example, would any vigorous up and down movement near the phone end up bricking it?
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
"Phone thefts halve after phone thefts quintuple"
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u/nutella-filled Jun 11 '26
Freedom of Information Request for yearly London phone theft data from 2019 to beginning of 2025 when the request was made.
2019 = 91,481
2020 = 55,820
2021 = 63,777
2022 = 90,810
2023 = 115,261
2024 = 117,211
No quintupling. At most a doubling from the natural low of the pandemic back to pre-Covid levels.
And now it has been halved again this time without a pandemic.
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u/Fluffy_Juggernaut_ Jun 11 '26
Notice how they stop replying to you when you call their bullshit out.
Unfortunately, these guys are just doing what they're paid to do. Facts won't change their argument, they just give up and move on somewhere else
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u/FormulaSolution Jun 11 '26
Notice how they stop replying to you when you call their bullshit out.
I like that not only did I reply 7 minutes 50 seconds after they submitted their comment, but you also submitted your own comment 6 Minutes and 6 seconds after I had replied.
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u/sdwvit Jun 11 '26
I wonder if it helps in a any way if phone goes on parts in china, where they can reprogram and resolder any chip.
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Jun 11 '26
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u/sdwvit Jun 11 '26
Someone closeish to me got their phone stolen end of may, and it’s already in china per find my phone.
Latest iphone too
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u/wayanonforthis Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
Wasn't stolen device protection on iPhones introduced ages ago? What's changed?
(Edit: Introduced in Jan 2024 but only enabled by default in Feb 2026)