Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Cycling muggers
Just a warning to be careful if using your phone out on the street. My son saw a woman have her phone snatched today by two young men on bikes. He was watching through the window and didn't realise what was happening until she started shouting that they'd stolen her phone.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Sorry to hear about this. I saw 5 policemen walking down the passage at about 6 this evening, perhaps this is why.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Be careful Maddy: I was lambasted some time ago for advising people to be careful when using a phone in the street.
It seemed my suggestion was equivalent to saying that a rape victim was asking for it by wearing a short skirt
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Permalink Reply by Nigel Tuppen on
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Yes,this has been happening around the Highgate station area for some time now.
The police and the neighbourhood watch around the Miltons area send out regular emails.
There has even been notices around the station to warn people to wait until they are well away from the tube station before phoning relatives etc from their mobiles.
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This used to happen in Bermondsey. At the station guys on bikes watched ppl coming out of the station checking their phones and then following them waiting for an opportune moment to snatch the phone out of their hands. Happened to me but I was able to hold on to my phone and then saw it happen to someone else. The police told me they get about £150 per phone. There are shops that buy the phones and then ship them to Africa. This is a low risk crime for those guys because if they snatch it, great, £150 in the bank, if not, no problem they didnt harm anyone.
So always watch out. Hold your phones tightly and close to your body.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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I'd never get an Iphone. I have an s4 mini - useful and not particularly attractive to thieves, though the police told me they snatch anything anyway.
I did have an incident once walking across Trafalgar Square on a Sunday evening, quite late (I was going from bus stop to bus stop on my way home). The square was deserted. A guy approached me from next to the National Gallery and asked for directions, but I couldn't really figure out what he was after. I had been using my phone but I gripped it tightly and close to my body. He pointed at the other guy and said he'd been having some trouble with him or something? It looked to me like they were together. Also, it was a cold night and this guy only had a tshirt on.
I think the idea was to get me to whip my phone out and show him where he was going on Google Maps (I do this in daylight, with people who are obviously tourists, but I wasn't about to do it with a weird guy in a deserted location, at night). Instead I just indicated with my other hand and said "if you don't want to go that way, go around the long way". As I walked off, the other guy approached him and asked what happened.
They were the most useless muggers ever but it did shake me up. I called the police but they weren't very interested.
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Note that with an iPhone you can make it worthless by making sure 'Find my iPhone' is on, as this enables activation lock. With this on, it is impossible to wipe & reuse the phone without knowing the Apple ID & password that you used to set it up.
Instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13695
This means that iPhones now have a rather lower street value & robbery rates are falling, apparently down 50% in London.
I think a similar technology is gradually coming to Android phones - though note that many are sold with old versions of the OS & can't be upgraded.
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Permalink Reply by Cosette P. Bocanegra on
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That happened to me a few weeks ago, just outside the Manor House station while waiting for the bus down to Green Lanes.
A guy on a motorcycle got really close to the pavement and snatched it away in seconds.
It is so common for all of us to be glued to our devices without paying attention until something like that happens, since then I keep my mobile in my bag until I get home.
Beware the police said these kind of crimes are on the rise.
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Has anyone had their telephone snatched from their hallway console table?
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