I found a carrier bag of phones in shrubbery in Wilmington Square gardens, inside the bag they were wrapped in tin foil. I only found them because I heard one ringing. I took them to Islington Police Station. They DID seem interested and took details from me and told me I had done my good deed for the day. After reading your article I rather wish I’d gone through the bag to try to reunite the phones with their owners. There were about 10 of them.
Might be enough to block the phone from reading the satellite signal for a GPS location, but not enough to block the actual "mobile" (eg 4G/5G) signal?
I think I can DEFINITELY find a spare trowel for the person who brought in the story. Thank you so much! Send your postal address to jim@londoncentric.media and I’ll get journalism’s most exclusive piece of merchandise on its way to you.
Had no idea Phoenix Garden existed, nevermind its seedy secondary function of hiding stolen goods. Fascinating! I do learn much more about my city from London Centric!
Jim you are smashing it. My son was victim of a phone robbery at a tube station (phone snatched just as he went to get on late night train, phone tossed to someone inside as doors closed, son left on platform with thief who he went to challenge before having gun pointed at him). Police did take it seriously for that reason but described it as an epidemic. I subscribed for the snails, this has reaffirmed my support! As for the trowel idea - genius.
Great reporting! I had no idea that Phoenix Gardens even existed, or that it was being used for nefarious hide and seek. Such a shame that the Met don't seem to realise that coming down hard on so called "low level" crime would make such a difference to the quality of life in London.
I found two dirty socks containing five phones each in a large flower pot when I tracked down my partner's iPhone after it was stolen at Regent Street. I turned the other phones in to Charing Cross police station and immediately regretted it. I asked the guy at the counter if they would try to return the phones to their owners to which he just replied "Nah, probably not".
I feel like Apple and Android could do two things to make this a lot easier for the police:
- when my phone is stolen I can already go into Find my Phone and report it as lost, which locks apple pay etc. Why can't I click another button to report the current location and recent location history to the police? The police would get essentially a live map of phone theft in the area.
- Apple/Android could provide each police station with a dedicated device that makes use of the Find my Phone technology to identify stolen phones. The police would just have to put the phone in the same room as that device and the phone's owner would automatically get a message saying "Your phone has been found and can be picked up at police station XYZ"
A friend had his phone stole in Brooklyn - I was pleasantly surpised - nay as a Britt, amazed, to hear the police response - the cop was excited to hear that the stolen phone had a tracker app, and gave my friend his telephone number, told him to call when his phone was on & could be tracked. This he did & led them both to the thief.
A seccond case was Canadian cops doing a city wide sting on bike thefts - they put many trackers in bikes, waited for them to be stolen, then over several weeks worked out the network of resale etc and then busted them all.
British cops - it's too difficult, here's a crime number for the insurance company.
I love everything about this main story. Well, everything but, again, a British institution that is very fast to jump against anyone who criticises them but very slow to accept any of their shortcomings or talk about how to improve them.
Someone snatched my phone right out of my hands about a month ago near Waterloo Station. I blocked it and used Find My Device, and it actually pinged somewhere close to where it got stolen. Ended up finding it at the bottom of a bin! At first, I figured the thief was only after newer phones (got an iPhone 13), but now I’m starting to think maybe he did what you mentioned in the article. who knows. I got super lucky.
omg i am speechless. How is this possible? The police need to take phone theft seriously. Also, remember to always report your phone theft, even though it will not lead to anywhere, it's good to have a reference in case your phone is retrieved and it's good for the police to have data for this type of crime. It's ridiculous how unsafe we feel every time we visit central London and we need to use our phone for directions...we need to always be vigilant.
The Met don't do enough for phone theft victims, but for me their apathy has a particularly bad sting: last December, the police arrested a suspected mobile phone thief on my property, following a chase from Borough to Deptford. The guy had decided to hide next to my wheelie bins (not a great move, considering there was a Police helicopter hovering overhead).
In the process of the Met Police enthusiastically apprehending him, my front wall was smashed. At the time of the event, one of the arresting officers told me that the whole thing had been captured on bodycam, and assured me that they'd be in touch in due course. They never contacted me and, 10 months later, I am still struggling to get any compensation for the damage, with Met Legal Services now claiming they don't have any record of the incident taking place.
I found a carrier bag of phones in shrubbery in Wilmington Square gardens, inside the bag they were wrapped in tin foil. I only found them because I heard one ringing. I took them to Islington Police Station. They DID seem interested and took details from me and told me I had done my good deed for the day. After reading your article I rather wish I’d gone through the bag to try to reunite the phones with their owners. There were about 10 of them.
huh, I thought the point of the tin foil was to stop the signal, but if one was ringing I guess it's not foolproof. Not wrapped very well perhaps
Tin foil isn’t enough to jam a signal.
Might be enough to block the phone from reading the satellite signal for a GPS location, but not enough to block the actual "mobile" (eg 4G/5G) signal?
May have been an alarm 🤷🏻♀️ or inexpertly wrapped
Blimey
I’ve just bought a subscription and I was the original commenter who mentioned the phones in the park so do I get a trowel? (Please?)
I think I can DEFINITELY find a spare trowel for the person who brought in the story. Thank you so much! Send your postal address to jim@londoncentric.media and I’ll get journalism’s most exclusive piece of merchandise on its way to you.
“Never stop digging” - love it!
Had no idea Phoenix Garden existed, nevermind its seedy secondary function of hiding stolen goods. Fascinating! I do learn much more about my city from London Centric!
Jim you are smashing it. My son was victim of a phone robbery at a tube station (phone snatched just as he went to get on late night train, phone tossed to someone inside as doors closed, son left on platform with thief who he went to challenge before having gun pointed at him). Police did take it seriously for that reason but described it as an epidemic. I subscribed for the snails, this has reaffirmed my support! As for the trowel idea - genius.
Great reporting! I had no idea that Phoenix Gardens even existed, or that it was being used for nefarious hide and seek. Such a shame that the Met don't seem to realise that coming down hard on so called "low level" crime would make such a difference to the quality of life in London.
Your stories seem to garner attention, LC team - let’s hope the Met are reading!
I found two dirty socks containing five phones each in a large flower pot when I tracked down my partner's iPhone after it was stolen at Regent Street. I turned the other phones in to Charing Cross police station and immediately regretted it. I asked the guy at the counter if they would try to return the phones to their owners to which he just replied "Nah, probably not".
I feel like Apple and Android could do two things to make this a lot easier for the police:
- when my phone is stolen I can already go into Find my Phone and report it as lost, which locks apple pay etc. Why can't I click another button to report the current location and recent location history to the police? The police would get essentially a live map of phone theft in the area.
- Apple/Android could provide each police station with a dedicated device that makes use of the Find my Phone technology to identify stolen phones. The police would just have to put the phone in the same room as that device and the phone's owner would automatically get a message saying "Your phone has been found and can be picked up at police station XYZ"
Such terrific reporting!
A friend had his phone stole in Brooklyn - I was pleasantly surpised - nay as a Britt, amazed, to hear the police response - the cop was excited to hear that the stolen phone had a tracker app, and gave my friend his telephone number, told him to call when his phone was on & could be tracked. This he did & led them both to the thief.
A seccond case was Canadian cops doing a city wide sting on bike thefts - they put many trackers in bikes, waited for them to be stolen, then over several weeks worked out the network of resale etc and then busted them all.
British cops - it's too difficult, here's a crime number for the insurance company.
I love everything about this main story. Well, everything but, again, a British institution that is very fast to jump against anyone who criticises them but very slow to accept any of their shortcomings or talk about how to improve them.
Someone snatched my phone right out of my hands about a month ago near Waterloo Station. I blocked it and used Find My Device, and it actually pinged somewhere close to where it got stolen. Ended up finding it at the bottom of a bin! At first, I figured the thief was only after newer phones (got an iPhone 13), but now I’m starting to think maybe he did what you mentioned in the article. who knows. I got super lucky.
Great article
Sadly phones aren't the only thing buried in flowerbeds. Knives in Finsbury Park. Fantastic reporting, keep it up (I'd love a trowel 😎👨🏻🌾)
Great report
omg i am speechless. How is this possible? The police need to take phone theft seriously. Also, remember to always report your phone theft, even though it will not lead to anywhere, it's good to have a reference in case your phone is retrieved and it's good for the police to have data for this type of crime. It's ridiculous how unsafe we feel every time we visit central London and we need to use our phone for directions...we need to always be vigilant.
The Met don't do enough for phone theft victims, but for me their apathy has a particularly bad sting: last December, the police arrested a suspected mobile phone thief on my property, following a chase from Borough to Deptford. The guy had decided to hide next to my wheelie bins (not a great move, considering there was a Police helicopter hovering overhead).
In the process of the Met Police enthusiastically apprehending him, my front wall was smashed. At the time of the event, one of the arresting officers told me that the whole thing had been captured on bodycam, and assured me that they'd be in touch in due course. They never contacted me and, 10 months later, I am still struggling to get any compensation for the damage, with Met Legal Services now claiming they don't have any record of the incident taking place.
Yoicks!
what an absolutely wild story! shouldn’t be surprised with your track record but i l love the detective work