Shocking moment thief on a bike snatches victim's phone from her hands in broad daylight at central London bus stop in latest example of terrifying trend sweeping the capital
- Have YOU had your phone stolen? Email: [email protected]
This is the shocking moment a thief on a bike snatches a victim's phone from her hands in broad daylight at a bus stop in central London.
In the video, a cyclist dressed all in black rides up to a group of people standing near the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End.
The thief slows down as he approaches them before he snatches the phone out of a young woman's hands and speeds off.
At the start of the clip - which has been shared widely on TikTok and X - the thief can be seen riding alongside another cyclist who is also dressed all in black.
The incident is just the latest example of a terrifying trend of 'gadget snatching' that is sweeping the capital.
Have YOU had your phone stolen? Email: [email protected]
![This is the shocking moment a thief on a bike snatches a victim's phone from her hands in broad daylight at a bus stop in central London](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/15/85106019-13438861-image-m-20_1716215345924.jpg)
This is the shocking moment a thief on a bike snatches a victim's phone from her hands in broad daylight at a bus stop in central London
![In the video, a cyclist dressed all in black rides up to group of people standing near the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/15/85105757-13438861-image-m-24_1716215381467.jpg)
In the video, a cyclist dressed all in black rides up to group of people standing near the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End
![The thief slows down as he approaches them before he snatches the phone out of a young woman's hands and speeds off](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/15/85105755-13438861-image-m-29_1716215561166.jpg)
The thief slows down as he approaches them before he snatches the phone out of a young woman's hands and speeds off
In April, horrifying footage was shared on social media of a thief on a bike grabbing a woman's mobile phone from her hands in Albany Place, Marylebone.
The clip was uploaded with the caption: 'Keep your head on swivel when in London.'
The victim is seen in the video attempting to chase after the offender while calling out: 'Hey, come back here.'
Another cyclist in a balaclava had passed by her in the seconds beforehand.
Similarly in March, two masked thieves were seen snatching a phone and fleeing on their bikes in Hampstead, north London - before crashing into an incoming car.
Then in February a motorcyclist was shown on CCTV trailing a man down the pavement in Tower Bridge Road before snatching his phone and speeding off.
The victim, a 28-year-old banker named Peter, later told MailOnline: ''I just felt something on my shoulder, then a hand went straight for my phone and it was just a snatch and grab.'
Footage shows Peter lunging towards the motorcyclist trying to grab his phone, before chasing him down the street.
And last August a brazen thief on an electric bike snatched a woman's phone in broad daylight just metres from the Ritz hotel near Green Park.
![The thief was seen approaching his unsuspecting victim on a bike from behind as she walked along Albany Street in central London](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/15/83910721-13438861-The_thief_was_seen_approaching_his_unsuspecting_victim_on_a_bike-a-27_1716215495092.jpg)
The thief was seen approaching his unsuspecting victim on a bike from behind as she walked along Albany Street in central London
![He swiftly swooped to seize the mobile phone from her hands](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/15/83910715-13438861-He_swiftly_swooped_to_seize_the_mobile_phone_from_her_hands_in_t-a-28_1716215497666.jpg)
He swiftly swooped to seize the mobile phone from her hands
Dash cam footage showed him rushing through stationary traffic at a red light, mounting the pavement and stealing the gadget from the lone pedestrian.
Figures have shown mobile phones reported as stolen in London every six minutes.
There were almost 91,000 phones snatched from Londoners in 2022, at an average of 248 a day, with only two per cent of the stolen devices recovered.
It comes as Android phones will soon be able to lock themselves if they are stolen as Google unveils new safety features.
Google's new range of features for its Android 15 operating system will be released later this year to combat mobile phone theft and fraud.
Some of the key updates will be Theft Detection Lock that will be able to automatically lock a phone's screen to prevent thieves from getting into the device, and a new AI-powered tool that will be able to detect when a phone has been snatched from the owner's hand.
Google said its AI will be able to detect 'common motion associated with theft' by reading signals from the device, such as the accelerometer reading the sudden jolt of someone on a bike snatching a phone from a user's hand and then moving off at a high speed, to instantly lock the device.
MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police about the latest incident.