The San Diego Police Department says more cell phones are being stolen than ever before, and the reason for the increase could be pretty simple.
We all have one, and we have them out all the time.
No one thinks they’ll become a victim until they stop paying attention and someone takes it, which is exactly what happened to Luis Alejandro on the trolley.
“I had it like this, watching some videos and this guy just came running. He grabbed my phone and kept running,” Alejandro said. “I was pissed and I was scared because it didn’t happen to me before.”
SDPD says similar crimes happen every day now. According to data from the police department, more than a thousand phones have been stolen already in 2019.
According to the data, more than 670 of those phones were iPhones, and nearly 170 were the latest iPhone X and XS Max models.
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“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Alejandro said.
Police say thieves know everyone carries a phone and many times we aren’t paying close attention to anything off that screen.
Sometimes it takes a hard lesson learned for us to change our habits.
“I’m more precautious. If I see a large crowd, I just don’t take my phone out at all,” Alejandro said. Don’t take it out and say, ‘Hey, look at my new phone! Look at this! Look at this!’ Because someone can just come in and steal it.”
SDPD says there is no rhyme or reason behind the number of phone thefts. Simply put, the phones are easy to steal and everyone has one.
