I know the stats – I’ve written story after story documenting phone snatchings and studied clips of unassuming Brits having their devices nicked in broad daylight.
The numbers are startling. A massive 66,528 phones were stolen in the capital in the year leading up to September 2024, according to Met Police statistics.
Over the same period in Westminster, 22,253 thefts were reported. That equates to 85.4 incidents per every 1,000 people.
But I never thought I’d become one of those figures… or end up in hospital, £700 down as a result.
It had been a long week at work when myself and two colleagues – Adam Pogrund and Ciaran Foreman – decided to go for a couple of drinks to watch Arsenal vs Real Madrid on April 8.
In hindsight, if I’d have known the night was going to end in what felt like disaster, I never would have gone.
A couple of beers at a west London boozer turned into a taxi into central London and a trip to Soho’s Albert’s Schloss and The Roxy bars.
It was a good night, as most are in London, and we didn’t leave The Roxy until the end of the night, 3am, when the club’s lights came on.
Gethin Hicks has seen the shocking figures proving the extent of London’s phone snatching epidemic but never thought it would happen to him – until it did
Between October 2023 and September 2024, a shocking 66,528 phones were stolen in London, according to statistics produced by the Met Police
The £50million-a-year phone theft crimewave has spiralled out of control in recent years with crooks raking in the cash by selling stolen devices on British soil or abroard
But after a brief trip to the toilet, as again happens on most nights in the capital, I lost my mates.
I thought it would be a bright idea to wait outside and catch them at the door – how wrong was I?
Perched against a wall just yards from the club’s entrance, I was scrolling through my phone when I was approached by a man in his early 20s, no bigger than 5″10 and without a hood or balaclava. I think he had left the very same bar that I had.
He didn’t look at all threatening.
I had two hands on my iPhone 13Pro, which I had bought just weeks earlier, when the young man started trying to chat to me. Perhaps tired after a long week, I wasn’t particularly interested in talking to him and so nodded briefly and continued scrolling.
He asked me if I wanted to see something on his phone and momentarily passed his device into my right hand, leaving me with one phone in the palm of each of my hands – exactly what he wanted.
That’s precisely when he snatched both devices from me and legged it down the street. Looking back, It was clearly not his first phone theft.
My phone was stolen at the end of a good night with my colleagues, Ciaran Foreman (left) and Adam Pogrund (right)
The thief snatched my device outside The Roxy in central London, a bar in the centre of a hotspot for phone thefts
After chasing after the thief, I ended up £700 worse off and in hospital with a badly sprained ankle
My first feeling was just panic. The pure horror of: ‘He’s got my phone’.
So I jumped up and pelted after him as quick as I could.
I chased the thief around two corners, down a long road and was gaining on him when he took a right around a bend and I fell – straight on my ankle. That was it, I’d lost him – and my new phone.
But in that moment I couldn’t feel my ‘badly sprained’ ankle. All I could think about was the fact that this thief had taken my phone, and it was unlocked when he’d snatched it.
Someone later told me: ‘It’s the equivalent of having your wallet stolen back in the day.’
But it’s not, it’s worse. It’s not just the fact that the thief can spend your money at will, it’s the invasion of privacy. Your life is on your phone.
I woke up the next day without a phone, unable to walk and with no choice but to hop to my local bank.
When I arrived the blood drained from my face when they told me the thief had spent almost £500 on my card and £200 on my Uber account – the exact news which had kept me up the previous night as I lay phoneless in bed.
Workers in central London have reported seeing victims left distraught on a daily basis after losing their phones to masked thieves
After logging into Find My iPhone, I could infuriatingly see exactly where the thief had taken my phone – it was in Woolwich, east London. But that was three hours before I logged in and the Met Police told me there was nothing they could do.
A trip to St George’s Hospital the next day confirmed that I had a ‘good’ sprain on an already injured ankle and would be on crutches for the foreseeable.
On the phone to my mum, in her usual worried fashion, she questioned: ‘Are you sure you haven’t been in a fight? Or can you just not believe that something this awful has happened to you?’
And she was right, that’s exactly what it was.
I couldn’t believe that I had been so naïve to have given the thief even a chance at taking my phone. I just didn’t for one moment think that I could be the next victim of a phone theft – I don’t think most people do.
But looking back now, I realise it wasn’t my fault.
In London especially, anyone can have their phone taken at any time they’re outside the comfort of their home.
Workers in central London have reported seeing victims left distraught on a daily basis after losing their phones to masked thieves.
The fairly new criminal practice has become part of a £50million-a-year crimewave which sees thugs speeding around corners on scooters and bikes taking expensive phones from innocent citizens.
I’ve reported my story to the Metropolitan Police, who are yet to make an arrest or retrieve my phone.
In recent months, the Met Police have brought about a reduction in the amount of devices stolen in London
The police force have put such a success down to the deployment of ‘various operations’ involving monitoring CCTV footage, increasing officers’ awareness and ’employing’ traffic units and surge teams in crime hotspots
I haven’t given up hope though.
In recent months, the Met Police have brought about a reduction in the amount of devices stolen in London.
A 27% decrease was recorded in November 2024 while, in an even more promising statistic, a 43% decrease was achieved the following month.
The police force have put such a success down to the deployment of ‘various operations’ involving monitoring CCTV footage, increasing officers’ awareness and ’employing’ traffic units and surge teams in crime hotspots.
In Westminster in particular, ‘really, really good’ CCTV coverage has been instrumental in helping officers track down the thieves plaguing London’s street.
Yet despite such successes London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, affirmed that there is more to do to tackle the epidemic.
‘As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and re-used illegally,’ she said.
More still needs to be done, however, to stop brazen thieves plaguing the streets of London
‘We’ll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.
‘The success in tackling phone thefts comes after the Met moved out of special measures last month, following major improvements in many areas of service to London.
‘These include responding more quickly to emergencies and strengthening neighbourhood policing to better respond to communities’ concerns, including tackling theft and robberies.
‘The Met is urging anyone who has lost or had stolen a phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via The Police National Mobile Property Register.’
