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Having your phone stolen is all-round pretty rubbish. These days our whole lives, from photographs to bank details, are stored on these devices; phone theft is a stress we could all do without.
If it feels like the number of phone thefts in London is increasing, well, that’s because it is. Last year, there were over 40,000 phone thefts reported in the capital. But it’s a bigger problem in some London boroughs than others.
In a recent report, the Met Police revealed that Greenwich is the London borough with the biggest increase in mobile phone thefts. Last year, 451 reports of phone theft were made in the area, an increase of 183.2 percent on the year before (which saw 202 reports).
Southwark came second, where phone theft increased by 81.4 percent in the last year, followed by Westminster which saw an increase of 71 percent. Camden and Lambeth were also flagged as areas to watch out for, with phone theft rising by 40 percent.
Whether it’s slyly lifted from your pocket or bag or taken out of your hand with force, phones can get stolen in all kinds of ways. Police are urging people to be cautious next time we’re mapping our routes, snapping a selfie, or generally waving our phones around in the above specific areas.
But it wasn’t all bad news in the Met’s phone thefts report. In some areas – such as Richmond, Sutton and Kingston upon Thames – phone theft fell by around 25 percent. Still, you can never be too careful.
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