[musictubes]

https://www.imore.com/iphone-theft-drops-40-san-francisco-25...

Activation lock made a huge difference. The next step to talking profits out of stolen iPhones is to make harvesting parts difficult.

I absolutely give Apple the benefit of the doubt when it comes to I this. Back in the bad old days iPhone theft was incredibly common and that has come down a lot over the years.

[flanked-evergl]

> The next step to talking profits out of stolen iPhones is to make harvesting parts difficult.

I would 100% buy this if you showed me data that indicates that part harvesting is behind most of the remaining theft of iPhones, which it very well may be, but if we have the data we would not have to guess.

[stouset]

FFS, what else do you think people are stealing them for? To make abstract art? Kleptomania? To stop the 5G towers from giving them COVID?

People steal stuff because they can use it or because they can turn around and sell it. If they can’t do either, they eventually stop stealing those things.

[baq]

I’m buying this right now, this is how a lot of car theft works also - parts are a good source of cash.

[mschuster91]

Especially catalytic converters. Can be stolen from an unprotected (i.e. no massive baseplate) car in below 30 seconds, and nets you about 1000$ a piece from junkyards willing to ignore the sawzall marks.

[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-catalytic-converte...