Man stalks woman through residential road before shoving her and stealing her phone
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
The man followed her for some 20 seconds before grabbing her mobile phone and shoving her to the ground.
Her grocery shopping scattered across the pavement, the woman had barely pulled herself up when the man sprinted off. A delivery driver and cyclist watch as the woman attempts to run after the thief.
The moment, captured on CCTV, is one of the latest instances of phone snatching in London.
Phone theft, especially of Apple iPhones, has been increasing for years in London. In 2022, about one phone was stolen every six minutes.
The CCTV footage, dated April 2 at about 7.40pm, was shared on the Newham Crime Watch Facebook group yesterday.
The unnamed woman was walking along Browning Road, a residential road near the East Ham and Manor Park train stations, according to the group.
The Metropolitan Police has been approached for comment.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, 66,528 phones were snatched, according to police data. A figure that likely undercounts how many are stolen, given that it only includes those reported to police.
Gliding through busy streets or suburban roads on bikes and mopeds, the thieves grab phones from people’s hands as they talk or text.
Londoners have watched as their stolen phone ends up in China, or resorted to covering their phone case in taramasalata just to feel safe.
The stolen phones are sold for parts as part of a £50 million underworld market.
Latest London news
- 11 people taken to hospital after ‘e-bike fire’ rips through tower block
- I’m a food writer and I’d never heard of this US chain in London
- Inside the plans to revamp London Liverpool Street station
To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro’s London news hub.
Plain-clothed officers now regularly patrol Westminster and the West End, where 40% of phone thefts occur, as they battle the ‘scourge of mobile phone crime’.
How to protect yourself if your phone gets stolen
Users should turn off the ability to access the control centre when their phone is locked, which can prevent thieves from turning on airplane mode, making the device impossible to track. This can be done by going to settings, selecting Face ID and passcode, and toggling control centre while locked off.
If thieves do manage to turn airplane mode on straight away, a shortcut can be added that locks the phone and turns airplane mode back off. Users need to setup an automation that says ‘when airplane mode is turned on, execute this shortcut’.
Face ID also needs to be turned on for the most important apps, including banking, email, messaging and photos. This is done by pressing ‘Enable Face ID’ after long pressing on the app.
Users have also been urged to store their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) somewhere safe. This is a unique 15-digit number which identifies the device, and means the phone can be ‘bricked’ via a network.
Where possible, iPhone users should have a second phone to use banking apps, which can be left at home
In just a single week in February, police raids saw more than 1,000 stolen handsets recovered and 230 people arrested.
A high-ranking officer previously told Metro that phone snatchers should receive same ‘firm and swift’ treatment rioters had this summer for thefts to stop.
‘We can do better in recovering phones. We are trying to get ahead of the curve and we are beginning to see patterns form,’ said Detective Superintendent Saj Hussain.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.