SAN FRANCISCO - In this tech-savvy city teeming with commuters and tourists, the cellphone has become a top target of robbers who use stealth, force and sometimes guns.
Nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco this year are cellphone-related, police say, and most occur on bustling transit lines.
One thief recently snatched a smartphone while sitting right behind his unsuspecting victim and darted out the rear of a bus in mere seconds.
Another robber grabbed an iPhone from an oblivious bus rider — while she was still talking.
And, in nearby Oakland, City Council candidate Dan Kalb was robbed at gunpoint of his iPhone Wednesday after he attended a neighbourhood anti-crime meeting.
"I thought he was going to shoot me," recalled Kalb, who had dropped his phone during the stickup. "He kept saying, "Find the phone! Find the phone!""
These brazen incidents are part of a ubiquitous crime wave striking coast to coast. New York City Police report that more than 40 per cent of all robberies now involve cellphones. And cellphone thefts in Los Angeles, which account for more than a quarter of all the city's robberies, are up 27 per cent from this time a year ago, police said.
"This is your modern-day purse snatching," said longtime San Francisco Police Capt. Joe Garrity, who began noticing the trend here about two years ago. "A lot of younger folks seem to put their entire lives on these things that don't come cheap."
Thefts of cellphones— particularly the expensive do-it-all smartphones containing everything from photos and music to private emails and bank account statements— are costing consumers millions of dollars and sending law enforcement agencies and wireless carriers nationwide scrambling for solutions...
http://news360.com/article/157367747
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Nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco this year are cellphone-related, police say, and most occur on bustling transit lines.
One thief recently snatched a smartphone while sitting right behind his unsuspecting victim and darted out the rear of a bus in mere seconds.
Another robber grabbed an iPhone from an oblivious bus rider — while she was still talking.
And, in nearby Oakland, City Council candidate Dan Kalb was robbed at gunpoint of his iPhone Wednesday after he attended a neighbourhood anti-crime meeting.
"I thought he was going to shoot me," recalled Kalb, who had dropped his phone during the stickup. "He kept saying, "Find the phone! Find the phone!""
These brazen incidents are part of a ubiquitous crime wave striking coast to coast. New York City Police report that more than 40 per cent of all robberies now involve cellphones. And cellphone thefts in Los Angeles, which account for more than a quarter of all the city's robberies, are up 27 per cent from this time a year ago, police said.
"This is your modern-day purse snatching," said longtime San Francisco Police Capt. Joe Garrity, who began noticing the trend here about two years ago. "A lot of younger folks seem to put their entire lives on these things that don't come cheap."
Thefts of cellphones— particularly the expensive do-it-all smartphones containing everything from photos and music to private emails and bank account statements— are costing consumers millions of dollars and sending law enforcement agencies and wireless carriers nationwide scrambling for solutions...
http://news360.com/article/157367747
Shared via News360 for Windows Phone 7. Learn more at http://news360app.com.
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