Sirens echoed through a quiet north London street as police vans screeched to a halt and officers stormed into three secondhand mobile phone shops — a dramatic scene that left passers-by stunned.
“Do you have a safe on your premises, sir?” one officer asked a shopkeeper quietly sipping tea beside his computer. Within minutes, officers were digging through phones, bundles of cash and documents pulled from two metal safes.
The operation — which The New York Times was granted rare access to observe — was one of dozens of coordinated raids launched across the capital last month. It marks a renewed and highly visible push by the Metropolitan Police to confront London’s worsening phone-theft crisis.
The scale of the crime has escalated far beyond the traditional pick-pocketing long associated with the city since the era of Oliver Twist. Today’s thieves are often masked, riding e-bikes, and skilled at snatching phones directly from the hands of residents and unsuspecting tourists.
According to police figures, a staggering 80,000 phones were stolen in London last year, cementing the city’s troubling status as Europe’s leading hotspot for mobile theft.
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