London Phone Snatching - Advice

[Stardust35]

Hi, I'm planning a solo day trip to London in a few weeks. There are a few things I want to do there, and I have a rare day off work coming up so wanted to take myself on a day out! I used to love going to London and visited friends there often but haven't been in a few years.

I keep hearing about phone snatching by criminals on mopeds, and am a bit worried how to prevent this. I'm likely to need my phone out a a lot for directions on google maps as I want to visit a few different places during the day. How common actually is this and does anyone have any way of minimising the risk? Or am I overreacting! Thanks x

Not sure if the same applies to Android but with an iPhone you should ‘lock’ your phone when using maps.

once you have set your route and it’s giving you directions, you can press the ‘lock’ button and it will still carry on, if you tap the screen the map / route will show but your phone is locked.

remember phone thefts aren’t always about your phone, it’s about all of the personal abs financial data they hold for us. So don’t make it easier to access your banking apps etc by having it already unlocked if stolen

Lived here for 20 years and the only people I’ve ever heard of getting their phones stolen out of their hands are teens by other teens.

I think you would be extremely unlucky if it happened to you.

If that’s right and the population of London is about 8.9m (apparently that was in 2019 so it’ll be higher now) then the number of Londoners having their phone stolen each day is 0.001% ish. Once you add in tourists that percentage will be even smaller - so do be sensible but really don’t lose sleep over it.

It's happening quite a lot where I work, near Cheapside in the City. Mostly when people are leaving offices and have their phone in their hand while crossing the road. I've seen two in the last three months

We were just in London for a long weekend, also with our toddler so I was a bit worried about this as obviously our toddler is a big distraction.
I wore a pair of jeans that fitted my phone (sideways) in a front pocket rather than putting it in my back pocket like usual; and a jacket with an inside pocket to use rather than a normal pocket (it also has a zipped pocket on my chest too which is handy for this sort of thing).
We looked up the route in advance and when stopping to check directions, we made sure we weren't right at the edge of the street, try to orientate yourself and remember 'I need to turn right/left at xyz street' so you don't need to look at your phone constantly. The maps on the street are useful too as someone pictured above.
It was totally fine though, didn't feel unsafe or see anything untoward happening. As usual really, it does happen but its not constant. Just be sensible and aware.
If you're very worried and need to take your phone out to look at something, step into a shop or cafe, find somewhere you feel safe.
I had to take my husbands phone off him a few times though when he'd put it in his back pocket or it was visibly hanging out of his jacket pocket. So my extra pockets came in handy! But tbh I was more worried it would fall out and get left behind on a bus seat than stolen.

Yes I'm going back to an A-Z - and I always keep a spare phone on me with train tickets etc on.

I used to live in London and someone did try to snatch my phone on a train once. I was gripping it with two hands so they didn’t get it but it was horrible.

Just make sure you have a tight grip. I still go to London a lot and it’s never happened since.

Don't be nervous. It's not as bad as you are anticipating. I'm in central London 2/3 days a week. My husband and adult DD all work in Central London 5 days a week. I've read about phone snatching in the press but it's never happened to any of us or anyone we know. Not have I ever seen it happen to a stranger. The worse thing that ever happened to me was having some cash stolen from my bag in about 1977 and that taught me to keep my bag closed!

When I need or want to use my phone I exercise common sense. I either back up against a wall out of the reach of passing traffic or step into a doorway. That also stops me committing the ultimate London faux pas of blocking the pavement! If you are really nervous, step into a shop/bank/coffee shop to check your phone. And as a PP said, the maps at road junctions all over London are very helpful and often easier to read than phone maps.

Carry your phone and cash/cards in a cross body bag and make sure it's always fastened. You will be fine.

I've lived here for decades and I walk around central london with my (admittedly shit) phone out and neither I nor anyone I know has ever had a phone snatched.

If you think about it, there are so many people in London - nobody has the resources to rob them all.

Same. I'm slightly further west. It seems absolutely rife on Fleet St. I was walking back from lunch with a colleague last year and her phone was snatched out of her hand by a guy on an e-bike. My office has about 90 people in it and I think 4 have had it happen within the past year.

My own phone got pickpocketed six months ago in the West End. I had my hand over my pocket but must have taken it off to hitch my bag strap and it went in that split second. Gutting. I watched it travel to East London, then Dubai, then China. Thieving wankers. I now have a lanyard for my phone.

Actually thinking about it, if you are really worried the best thing to do is ensure that if anyone gets your phone they will not be able to get into your banking, Amazon, phone accounts etc, so log out of everything and delete any remembered passwords. Nobody wants the phone these days, it is just access to your accounts.

On Amazon you can get phone security straps. My son has one that a knife can't cut through 😊😊

It isn't just tourist areas. It happens in the city too, and a lot in places like Hackney and Walthamstow for example. Bus stops are a popular target.

As others have said, minimise use on the street and keep your wits about you.

From local experience you get a gang operating in a particular area for a while that eventually gets caught, so for a period you get a lot of thefts there and then it all calms down. It's not like there an unlimited number of people doing this. I assume central London is a bit more persistent as there are just more people there to steal from so people are coming in from other areas.

So if you live in an area that hasn't been lucky enough to get its own group of thieves, you could easily have avoided any experiences, given that you're far less likely to be robbed in central London just because there are so many people there the odds must be lower.

@TheYearOfSmallThings this isn't correct. Many stolen phones end up in Shenzhen China where they are scrapped for parts

Thank you everyone! I'm obviously not going to miss out on a day in the city, but just wanted to be prepared of any precautions I can take 😊

I hold mine with 2 hinds kind of on each side and put one finger along the top and use my thumb on the other hand to scroll/type. Gripping is the easiest way to prevent theft.

Mine was switched on about 4 weeks after it was stolen in Dubai according to find my phone and never reconnected after that.

Happened to me walking down Harley street for my IVF appointment. 2 guys on a moped.

Get a strong hand strap.
My dads also had 4 phones nicked in the space of 5 years of working in central London.

I recommend an A-Z

Attach your phone to a lanyard round your neck or attach to your bag

This! My teenage daughter left her phone on a table in a fast food place and got the textbook bloke begging for food who dropped a newspaper on her phone, then picked them up together and fled.

I know someone who did this and when her phone got snatched she got dragged along the pavement a way before they let go. Poor woman was in a real state physically. Personally I'd rather someone got my phone than risk that.

It's sensible anywhere to keep away from the roadside when you are looking at your phone, and be aware of your surroundings. I've never been in central London, day or night and felt unsafe. It's probably one of the safest cities in the country. I do always take basic precautions, such as wear a cross body bag and keep my bank card in the zip up compartment, in case my purse or phone goes astray, one way or another. As I said, these are basics for any town or city.

On average 143 phones were stolen per day in London in 2023. Most common borough being Westminster

Westminster contains a lot of crowded tourist locations and large stores. I bet if one could see phone thefts, bag thefts, pickpocketing incidents plotted on a map, they'd be clustered around Oxford Street, Covent Garden etc.

(I once worked in a West End store, We were forever telling customers to zip up their bags and not carry their wallets sticking out of their back pockets. And also as this was peak IRA time, not to put a large bag down somewhere and wander off to look at something the other side of the shop floor.)