Increased Theft of Apple Devices 'Driving Force' Behind Rise of Larcenies in New York City

[Spiritgreywolf]

I was trying to think of a legitimate reason for selling an activation locked iPhone, but I couldn't think of one because at some point the iPhone must have been stolen.

Ebay is worthless. There isn't an option for reporting an item as stolen. They want you to contact your local police and have the police contact ebay for further information.

About the only thing I could think of is if the power switch, screen, back, etc., is unblemished and needed for parts - but that doesn't justify the cost - since all of those parts are cheaper than what the phone is going for.

And no - the only reason to SELL an activation locked phone is that it isn't yours and it's stolen. This is one of those few things I would have to say I assume them guilty until they prove they're innocent. Too bad I can't e-Bay a visit to the seller with a baseball bat...

I had one stolen over a year ago and then had the idea of making a powered case that protects the power switch. If you press it and haven't disarmed the case it keeps screaming. It would also keep cycling power to the pins on the phone which would cause it to keep turning itself back on.

I hate petty thieves like that. The dude is lucky I didn't catch him. Is it worth someone's life over a phone? Of course not. Over MY phone? Absolutely.

 

[macs4nw]

…..I'd have no clue how to turn a car stereo into money but I can tell you a dozen ways to turn an iPhone into cash. When even non-criminals know how to fence and item, that's obviously a factor.

That is sadly the problem, even after valiant attempts to curb thefts thru 'Find my iPhone' and 'Activation Lock'. As long as thieves know there is a market for iPhone parts such as screens, home buttons, etc., these thefts aren't going to lessen, and even a national or even universal UDID, iMEI or MEID# registry would not stem the tide of these thefts in a significant way.

It seems the only effective way to protect oneself is to be vigilant at all times when out and about with your iDevice. Almost takes the fun out of owning one.

 

[g0odfr1end102]

You could just force it off by holding the power and home.

Whilst getting mugged with a knife? Or getting your phone snatched out of your hands when the subway doors close?

I experienced the first one, and the last thing on my mind was telling the guys: "excuse me lads, may you please give that back to me for just 15seconds the time I turn it off? Thank you very much, have a good one".

My point being: getting mugged is stressful, and you just want it to be over as soon as possible. No way I'm taking a knife in the chest for a phone.
The thing I WOULD love is for them not being able to even use the thing. I want them to realize how stupid, how incredibly poor-minded they are. Putting a password to turn it off and finding their sorry little a**** would have put a HUGE smile on my face.

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A brilliantly simple solution.

Nice!

Thank you very much sir. Now hoping Tim and Phil agree with you!

 

[MacLC]

Sadly, nobody in New York City seems to be any good at statistics, and they confuse correlation with causality.

That might be related, but I don't think it's the cause.

I think this is just a lame excuse! "Look, it's not our fault, there is just so much more nice, stealable things!" What's bugging me, is that people (and news organizations) buy it.

Agree 100%. No explanation for the rise in this category of crime over the past 3 years was given. While the crime rate still seems low (1/100 people w/iphone over 365 days) and in and of itself would not dissuade me from visiting NYC, the reaction by legal authorities is frightening. To compensate for rising crime they want individuals to register their phones. As others have said, a phone stolen in NYC will likely go up for sale somewhere in Italy or Brazil in a few weeks. In other words, you have two insults. First your phone is tracked as long as you have it and second when it is stolen authorities will wipe their hands of the matter and blame you for letting it get stolen. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

Why not admit that in NYC crime and poverty are closely linked and government programs to alleviate both have aggravated them instead.

 

[tbrinkma]

Sadly, nobody in New York City seems to be any good at statistics, and they confuse correlation with causality.

Theft of Apple Devices is going up for the simple reason that there are more of them around. I bet not a single iPhone was stolen before 2007. I'd love to see the statistics for theft of hybrid cars; they must be skyrocketing since hybrid cars were introduced. By now they must massively outnumber the thefts of horse buggies.

The "rise of larcenies" in New York City is due to more people stealing stuff. And once they steal stuff, they steal stuff that is there.

Maybe there's more to it than the article and graphic demonstrate. Unless that's the case, however, I agree that the claim doesn't seem to follow from the data.

Looking at the attached graphic for demonstration purposes, the growth rate of Apple device thefts doesn't seem to track in any way with the growth rate of grand larcenies overall.
2005-2013: Apple device thefts are steadily increasing.
2005-2010: Overall grand larcenies are decreasing.
2010-2013: Overall grand larcenies are increasing.

More notably, even during the 2010-2013 grand larceny increase, the number of Apple device thefts don't seem to tie to the boost in grand larcenies.

Based on this, we can't support the claim that Apple device thefts are the "'Driving Force' Behind Rise of Larcenies in New York City".

 

[John.B]

Based on this "logic", the NYPD should blame Honda and Ford for car thefts:

Esurance - top 10 most commonly stolen cars

2011: most stolen vehicles

1994 Honda Accord
1998 Honda Civic
2006 Ford Pickup (full-size)
1991 Toyota Camry
2000 Dodge Caravan
1994 Acura Integra
1999 Chevrolet Pickup (full-size)
2004 Dodge Pickup (full-size)
2002 Ford Explorer
1994 Nissan Sentra

 

[BSDanalyst]

The NYPD are not blaming Apple, just releasing some stats.

I want a self exploding iPhone after it is reported stolen... is that too much?

 

[goobot]

Whilst getting mugged with a knife? Or getting your phone snatched out of your hands when the subway doors close?

I experienced the first one, and the last thing on my mind was telling the guys: "excuse me lads, may you please give that back to me for just 15seconds the time I turn it off? Thank you very much, have a good one".

My point being: getting mugged is stressful, and you just want it to be over as soon as possible. No way I'm taking a knife in the chest for a phone.
The thing I WOULD love is for them not being able to even use the thing. I want them to realize how stupid, how incredibly poor-minded they are. Putting a password to turn it off and finding their sorry little a**** would have put a HUGE smile on my face.

What? You said they should let you put a password on the device to turn it off so muggers can't turn it off and find my iPhone will still work. Why would you turn it off for the mugger? What i was saying was that the password won't stop anything because the mugger can just force it off with the power home button trick.

 

[Danthetechman]

I think very few of the stolen phones were stolen from teenage girls. They may be oblivious, but that doesn't mean it's easy to steal something that is being stared at 24/7 waiting for a Facebook notification or a text from their friend about Starbucks.
Stereotypes ftw... lol jk

 

[dkwannabe]

All this seems asinine to me. The manufacturers/telecoms can put an end to it in a heartbeat if they wanted to, leaving spare parts as the only reason to steal a device. But the 'everyone buys 2 phones' model works out much more nicely for them.