[ozyschmozy]

How often does phone theft actually happen? I keep hearing this argument but in my ~15 years of owning non-apple phones and laptops, I've never had one stolen, or heard of anyone getting theirs stolen. Have I just been very lucky?

[cianmm]

I’m in Dublin, Ireland. It is not common, but not uncommon. Kids and teenagers zip around high-footfall areas in the city centre (such as our financial district) on escooters and electric bikes, and literally grab the phones out of your hand as you’re using them. Minimal violence because they know they’d likely lose, but still pretty traumatic and the Gardaí (our police force) are two swamped in everything else to do a thing about it.

I know four people it’s happened to in two years, all four of them women.

[zimpenfish]

> escooters and electric bikes, and literally grab the phones out of your hand

London has a non-zero problem with this too - someone tried to grab mine earlier this year but they missed (and apologised as they rode off!) (and I had it on a strap anyway.)

[JCharante]

My gf at the time had her phone stolen 2 years ago. Thought she forgot it at a cafe but after watching cctv someone took it out of her jacket like in a movie. Some coffeeshop employees will have their phones charging behind the counter but within customer reach and sometimes people steal the phones (happened to a close friend).

[LtWorf]

My friend got an apple laptop stolen.

Only friend that got a phone or computer stolen that I know of.

[vasdae]

The answer depends on the country or even the city you live in or visit. In some places walking around with a $1000 phone is extremely dangerous to your life.

[ndsipa_pomu]

That seems surprising to me, when surely there's no easy way to steal a phone (iPhone or Android) and not have it completely locked and unusable. I would imagine that cars are eminently more desirable a target to steal as they're often left unattended for hours/days at the side of the road and they're typically worth far more than $1k. It's also relatively easy to attack a car waiting at traffic lights, over-power the driver and have access to the car and the keys, if the actual vehicle is required rather than just selling the parts.

[vasdae]

Pickpocketing is quick and easy, sometimes not even a crime, and even though phones are locked, you can sell the Android phone for pieces. That's not the case for the iphone.

[ndsipa_pomu]

> Pickpocketing is quick and easy, sometimes not even a crime

I find that difficult to believe.

[Lalabadie]

In many places, it's a crime according to the law, but if nothing happens with thieves or reported theft, then in terms of consequences it's not a crime.

[ndsipa_pomu]

I think you're using a different defintion of "crime" than I am (unlawful activity is probably the simplest). "Unenforced" would be probably a better term. e.g. Speeding in a car is a crime in a lot of places, but is often unenforced.

[luuurker]

> That's not the case for the iphone.

You can definitely re-use or sell iPhone parts. Most of replacement parts shops have access to are not sold directly by Apple.

As mentioned in the article, some parts won't work and others will show warnings. And sometimes you can reprogram chips with small devices easily available from China, which essentially defeats Apple's hardware pairing.

[vuln]

> but in my ~15 years of owning non-apple phones and laptops

> I've never had one stolen

> Have I just been very lucky?

No you’re not lucky. Your items aren’t worth stealing. Rarely does anyone steal android devices, or windows laptops the resale value isn’t there. Which should be obvious to the most casual observer.

[luuurker]

Are you suggesting that a thief won't snatch your +$1k Galaxy S23 Ultra because they'll only get $700 instead of $900 for a similarly priced iPhone?

I'm not sure if they're that picky.

[vuln]

I don’t see looters breaking into a Samsung store.

[luuurker]

The value is there, but if they're too dumb to loot an Apple store to steal iPhones that will be blocked pretty quickly and don't even run regular software, then maybe we shouldn't expect them to understand the value of phones from other brands either.

I'd expect the HN crowd to be a bit smarter than Apple store looters though.