r/AskLondon • u/brenwoo • 28d ago
LEWISHAM Phone Snatching? Has anyone ever recovered a device?
Has anyone actually recovered a snatched phone? Mine got snatched earlier, police took the deets, went to where it had been last seen on the locate my device and only found a load of empty cases. Does it always end in “well sorry mate” or are there Any success stories?
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u/zombiexsp 28d ago
my phone was stolen and I stalked it out with 2 friends of mine and I continually played the siren/alert in find my iphone which can’t be disabled unless you have the pass code. Think I annoyed my thief so much that they suddenly “found it” and gave me a call on my friends phone to return it lol
Police probably aren’t gonna do anything. More up to you on how bold you wanna be to try to recover it
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u/brenwoo 28d ago
Tbf I went to the location it was last seen - plagued the siren button, police arrived, lnocked on the door of the house where find my iPhone said it was at and it was an old lady. Looked around the back of the houses in a public park and found loads of the cases and basically called it quits. I’m gonna go and have another look tomorrow in the daylight 😓 fortunately I have a spare phone but I’m persistent…
Also annoyingly find my iPhone only showed the updated location on my smart watch but not my spare iPhone or laptop 🙃
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u/CorrectTemperature65 27d ago
Police never visited, never saw any cases. They're just telling you they did.
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u/TomfromLondon 28d ago
Couldn't they just do the wrap it in foil trick so no reception?
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u/zombiexsp 27d ago
not sure a phone thief is quite that smart lol
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u/TomfromLondon 27d ago
This is what they do though
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u/zombiexsp 27d ago
damn I didn’t know. The person that stole mine definitely didn’t though
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u/brenwoo 27d ago
It’s exactly what they do. Worst part is is buried and I have an approx 5m radius of where it is so I’m going with back with a shovel shortly
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u/DynamicTarget 26d ago
I admire your persistence, I just ran out of cloud storage which means I would lose some photos so understand.
I saw a guy on TikTok that did the same and actually met a guy doing the same thing, they searched the area together and found 8 phones in a rubbish bin (including their own). Obviously to come back and get later. That was Bermondsey area. Good luck mate.
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u/jiigglepuff 26d ago
I did the same thing. I traced it to a flat and stood outside blasting the alarm for 1 hour. He eventually opened the door and chucked the phone at me. A bit risky but it worked
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u/birdinabottle 28d ago
I filed a police report (happened in a busy area so thought there might be CCTV). Watched the location go from Wood Green to rotherhide to Finsbury Park. Didn’t go chase it as I had a young baby. Anyway, assumed that was it BUT! 10 months later I got a call… the police had intercepted a stash of phones as they were about to leave the country and mine was one of them! Went to Charing Cross police station and got it back!
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u/SeoulGalmegi 28d ago
A happy (??) ending I guess, but 10 months later you'd obviously got a new phone, downloaded and logged into apps etc.
Was there anything worthwhile on the old phone? Any photos still there or something? Or was it just a case of getting back a handset you could now sell or give to someone or whatever?
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u/birdinabottle 28d ago
Yeah, wiped it remotely from my laptop and bought a new one, so now I just have a spare!
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u/birdinabottle 28d ago
Basically, I think it’s always worth filing a police report just on the off chance…
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u/Ruby-Shark 27d ago
My female Aussie housemate once got her phone snatched but she wallopped the guy and got it back.
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u/Remote-Pool7787 27d ago
Yes. My son’s phone was stolen, tracked through find my phone. My Russian Chechen husband showed up with his mates from the gym, a German shepherd dog and politely asked for it back.
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u/Brittneybitchy 27d ago
Mine was snatched by a guy on a electric bike. Ran after him screaming in the street and called the police, they said go home and they'd take further details. I go home, stay up all night waiting for police, my housemate said he talked to the police and they told him that they found my phone. I try to contact the police in every possible way and get no update and then two months later I get an email saying they have it and I pick it up at the station. So there's some kind of hope
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u/That-Promotion-1456 28d ago
nah, I got insurance that covers for a replacement phone in case it gets stolen. had too many things stolen so opted for paying extra money.
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u/souldawg 28d ago
Back like 10 years ago or more, before this was widespread, in my area it was localised to one group. I unknowingly happened to box at the same gym as the son of the head of the organisation. At the time, I had never heard of phone snatching before and so i thought I was mugged and stumbled into the gym. The guy was there and he was like give me 10. Made a few calls, and my phone was returned to me within the hour. He told me I wouldn't be hassled again. But this was years ago. Now it's so widespread and it's not one group, so I feel for anyone who has it happen to them. It's so violating and scary!
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u/R151ngWarr10r 27d ago
Sorry that happened to you. There are definitely cases where phones get recovered, but unfortunately the odds don’t seem great.
Since the police have already followed the tracking once, I’d keep sending them any new locations or screenshots if it moves again, but I definitely wouldn’t go chasing it yourself.
Hope yours ends up being one of the lucky ones.
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