EXCLUSIVE ‘It’s a crime that just goes unpunished’: Furious victims of mobile phone thefts say they are being ignored by police and forced to try and track them down themselves – with one ending up in Dubai and then China
- Victims say police refuse to search for phones despite being given location
- Comes as just two per cent of phones stolen in London were retrieved last year
Furious victims of phone thefts say they are being ignored by police despite tracking their stolen devices – and are being left with no choice but to try and hunt them down themselves.
More than 90,000 phone thefts were recorded in London alone last year, with victims across the UK saying the issue has become ‘a crime that goes unpunished’.
Just 2,000 mobile phones were returned to their rightful owners in 2022, equivalent to just two per cent, with some devices ending up as far afield as Dubai and China within just days.
Often victims are able to track down the exact location of their stolen phone, but say police ‘do nothing’ to retrieve it.
Shelby-Jade Murdock, 27, was visiting her family in the UK when her phone was ripped from her jacket pocket during as she walked along a road in Manchester city centre.
Shelby-Jade Murdock, 27, clinical data manager at the University of Utah, whose phone was stolen in Manchester
Scarlett White and her father (pictured) took it upon themselves to visit the location of her mobile phone after police refused
She reported the incident to police and told investigators the exact location of her phone, but her case was closed without any officers visiting attempting to recover it.
Ms Murdock, a clinical data manager at the University of Utah, told MailOnline: ‘I didn’t notice it had been stolen until I got a notification through my Apple Watch a few minutes later.
READ MORE: Mobile phone theft suspect is stopped in his tracks by HUGE rugby tackle from passer-by
‘I then got a ping to a location in a nearby street. I headed there, but couldn’t find it. I went home and kept updating my computer to see if it was in the same location or moving.
‘I filed a police report online, then called them when I got a ping that it was at a storage facility. But police told me it was being held in a private compartment and therefore they could not search it and retrieve my phone – they then closed the case.
Ms Murdock accused police of failing to see the value of phone crimes and she was left having to catch a return flight to the US two days later using her father’s old phone.
Despite accepting she would never be reunited with her phone, she looked up its location ‘out of interest’, only to see it had been located in Dubai and then China a few days later.
Ms Murdock was left having to fork out $1,300 to replace her iPhone 13 Pro Max, along with a new case.
Scarlett White, 25, was walking to catch the last train home when she was shoved by two men outside the entrance to Victoria station on Friday.
She was left shaken up following the ordeal, before realising her phone had been snatched when she got on the train with friends.
Ms White, who lives in Cardiff and was visiting her parents in Bromley, said: ‘I had a full blown meltdown. Our entire lives are on our phones. I was full of paranoia and anxiety as I have pictures of credit cards and details on my phone.
Around 91,000 phone thefts were recorded across the capital last year alone. Pictured: Two motorcyclists approach a man on his phone before snatching the device
Both incidents happened when someone on a motorcycle or bike cycled up close whilst she was walking on the street, before snatching the phone out of her hand (file image)
‘I logged into my iCloud on a friend’s phone to mark it as lost, but they had turned it off. I got home and I could not stop crying. I was trying to cancel everything, but needed my phone to login to my apps to do so.
‘I did not sleep one bit that night. I called police to report it and as I was on the phone I saw the location, but I was told that the location was a block of flats and police would not have a warrant to search it, so they told me they would not be visiting the location.’
READ MORE – Revealed: Victims of London phone theft find their stolen mobiles are ending up in the SAME street in Chinese city
When the phone was moved to another location the following day, she updated police, but was again told no officers would search for the device.
Instead, she and her father took it upon themselves to visit the location – a shop in east London.
She added: ‘I had lots of plans to catch up with friends over the bank holiday, but instead I was panicking about this. My dad and I visited the shop on Monday, which was about an hour’s drive and parked up outside.
‘We asked the man at the counter if he sold phones, but he just pointed us to other stores. We went in to ten to 15 different shops trying to find it, but couldn’t.’
Ms White said she was afraid she and her father might be putting themselves in danger and had no idea what would be said if they found the phone.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max cost her £800 and she has now been left having to pay £500 to find a refurbished older phone.
She continued: ‘It is a massive hit on me financially and it is frightening to think this has happened so many times.’
Megan Kenyon, 25, who has had her mobile phone stolen twice in Islington, north London within the last year, said it feels like ‘a crime that goes unpunished’.
Both incidents happened when someone on a motorcycle or bike cycled up close whilst she was walking on the street, before snatching the phone out of her hand.
On both occasions she contacted the police but this was ‘mainly because I needed the crime reference number’ for insurance.
She added: ‘I knew the police wouldn’t do anything about it.
‘The first time it happened and I reported it, nothing happened. (This was) despite the fact that I was able to track its location and see where it had been taken to.
‘On the second occasion, I had a conversation with a police officer who said that because the thief was wearing a balaclava, there was nothing they could do.
Ms Kenyon added: ‘It just feels like there is no point in reporting it in the first place, unless you need to for your insurance.
‘It’s only for proof not for any repercussions. It’s a crime that goes unpunished, there seems to be no effort from the police to prevent this.
‘You feel very violated, your whole life is on your phone, you can be left not knowing what to do.’
The victims shared concerns that ‘a small group of thugs’ are responsible for the ‘vast majority’ of the thefts, with claims ‘hundreds’ are ending up at the same addresses before often being moved abroad.
Sharon Browne-Peter, who runs a sickle-cell anaemia charity, recalled how her phone was snatched from her hand by a man riding a bicycle as she waited for a bus in Islington, north London, in February earlier this year.
She tracked the location of the device and informed police, but her phone was never retrieved.
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke (pictured) attributed the number of offences going unsolved to ‘missed opportunities’ from increasingly inexperienced investigators
Ms Browne Peter told the BBC: ‘They told me that there were hundreds of cases at that same address but there’s nothing they can really do. So after that point, I just sort of left it.’
It comes as HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke admitted ‘the stats don’t make for good reading’ as he attributed the number of offences going unsolved to ‘missed opportunities’ from increasingly inexperienced investigators.
He told BBC’s Today programme: ‘It is not just an issue for the Metropolitan Police, but across the country. There are a number of facets to it, first of all the demand on policing is ever increasing and policing does have finite resources, so it needs to prioritise accordingly.
‘However, on a recent inspection that we did in relation to volume crime – burglary, robbery and theft – it was quite apparent that policing didn’t always make the most of the opportunities it had to catch those responsible for it.
‘What we found on our most recent inspection was that from the first point of contact, when the first time the call was coming in, opportunities weren’t being taken firstly to secure forensic evidence and, secondly, to give good crime prevention advice.
‘Moving on from there, the investigations themselves were not always timely, so that golden hour of opportunity to preserve the forensic evidence was missed.
‘Investigators, because policing has recruited an awful lot of people in a short period of time, there is a good deal of inexperience there.
‘When you have inexperienced people, you need very strong supervision and we found that was missing in many, many forces across the country.’
It is believed that the iPhones are likely being stripped for parts and filtered into legal markets, or being turned into ‘Frankenstein phones’.
The Met Police said officers ‘run daily operations to target offenders’.
A spokesman for the force added: ‘The recovery of phones is difficult as those stealing them pass them on to be sold very quickly.
‘Police run daily operations to target offenders and work with second hand retailers to crack down on stolen mobile phones being sold on.
‘Specially trained officers focus their attention on hotspot areas, as well as key times of the day, to prevent those intent on using mopeds and other means of transport to steal from being able to do so.’
Source: Read Full Article
