London (AFP) – In an unmarked vehicle, police officers crisscross several London neighborhoods on the south bank of the Thames. Their target: mobile phone snatching, a scourge in the British capital, committed by hooded teenagers speeding on electric bikes.

Published on: 04/28/2026 - 1:57 p.m. Modified on: 04/28/2026 - 1:58 p.m.

On the London Bridge side, office workers are busy drinking pints in the sun while legions of tourists flock to Borough Market, London's famous food market.

There is no shortage of potential prey for phone thieves, points out police officer Hayden O'Connor, pointing to passers-by who take out their smartphones to check directions or listen to music.

“You see your bus is in 20 minutes, you take out your phone, you go on Instagram, and before you know anything, an electric bike is barreling towards you and your phone is gone,” he says.

Hayden O'Connor is part of a team that the AFP was able to follow during a few hours of patrol.

Police receive reports of stolen devices, but the chances of recovering one are "really, really slim", admits colleague Hayley Carr.

Drones, real-time facial recognition systems, intervention teams: the London police are deploying different means to fight against this phenomenon, which has earned the metropolis the nickname of the European capital of mobile phone theft.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's former chief of staff was a notorious victim a few months ago.

These thefts fell by 12.3% last year, from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 in 2025, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police.

International traffic

They fuel international traffic: smartphones are often exported, reactivated and resold abroad within a few days.

In 2025, the “Met” dismantled a network suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobiles from the United Kingdom to China.

The devices “are shipped to the four corners of the world”, underlines commissioner Gareth Gilbert.

The team receives a call from the control center: a stolen phone has been located in Deptford, a district further east.

With its flashing lights on, the car begins to slalom through the heavy traffic of the capital but suddenly the phone's location signal is lost. Thieves wrap the devices in aluminum foil, officers said, to prevent detection.

Hidden under their hoods, these thieves are often teenagers. “Usually they're 16 or 18,” says Hayden O'Connor. During a recent patrol, he arrested two 13-year-old boys.

They are “recruited by large organized criminal groups”, explains Gareth Gilbert. They then risk getting caught up in gangs and involved in more serious criminal activity.

These young people generally earn between 100 and 200 pounds (between 115 and 230 euros) per stolen phone. “For a 13-year-old, that’s a lot,” he comments.

Later that evening, around midnight, the patrol team ended up arresting six thieves, according to law enforcement.

But in the fight against this phenomenon, the police are calling on smartphone manufacturers to do their part.

The head of the Met, Mark Rowley, has given these companies until June 1 to come up with methods to make these mobiles unusable once stolen. Failing this, he pledged to ask the government to legislate.

“If a stolen phone became a simple unusable brick and its components were not recyclable, there would be no black market,” the official stressed in March during an international conference.

© 2026 AFP

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