MP describes the moment she was about to ‘tackle’ phone snatcher on Westminster Bridge

As the Met makes its biggest bust yet to purge London’s streets of phone snatchers, two victims who were targeted 10 years apart said ‘little has changed’ to stop thieves from targeting the city.

Police found 1,000 stolen devices destined for Hong Kong during a raid at Heathrow Airport under Operation EchoSteep.

The criminal gang accused of organising the shipment is suspected of making millions after shipping 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China in the past year. 

This marks one of the biggest signs Londoners may soon be able to take their phone out in public without gripping onto it for dear life in case a thief on an e-bike comes whirling past.

But after years of snatching plaguing the city, Londoners and politicians have been left still grappling with the impacts of having such a personal device quite literally ripped out of their hands.

Sitting down with Metro, MP Dawn Butler and Londoner Adele Pearson discussed the moment their phones were taken – 10 years apart.

‘I told police I was going to tackle them myself’

The Labour MP for Brent was at a conference in Westminster in 2015 when her handbag disappeared.

She managed to track it going slowly across Waterloo Bridge, but after notifying police she was told they were ‘not interested’ in helping.

The Labour politician told Metro: ‘With the help of other conference attendees, I followed the thieves in the back of a van.

‘At one point I even pretended to be kissing the man helping me, to not make it seem obvious.’

Dawn called 999 to let them know she was about to tackle the two men and get her handbag back

Police eventually arrived to the scene and apprehended the suspects, but only after the MP threatened to tackle the thieves herself.

‘I had my phone snatched twice – you can’t have any nice things in London’

But 10 years later, Adele Pearson said she received little help from the police after her phone was snatched twice.

The TV producer had her first phone stolen by a man on an e-bike while she was walking along London Bridge in July last year.

But just five months later her replacement phone, which she had only just received through her insurance, was pinched from her at a pub.

She said: ‘When my first phone was snatched, the public were more of a help than the police. A group of builders tried to chase the guy down for me but he got away.

‘I still don’t walk down the streets the same way, if I see a tourist with their phone out I go up and warn them.’

No Londoner has been spared from the rate of phone snatching which has blighted the capital for years.

Some 78,000 people had phones or bags stolen from them on British streets in the year to March 2024.

Snatch thefts have increased by 150% in London over the last year, with one phone stolen in the capital every six minutes.

MPs warned to ‘stay vigilant’ around Parliament

MPs and other Parliament workers have also reported their devices being taken off them

Dawn told Metro: ‘We are frequently being sent out alerts, saying to be vigilant around the parliamentary estate as someone has just had their phone stolen.’

Last year, parliamentary data revealed six phones were stolen from House of commons staff, three taken from members of the House of Lords and one MP reported their phone as snatched.

Labour MP Chris Webb said he was mugged by a gang as he walked out of parliament along Lambeth Walk in November.

He said how a ‘stealthy’ group on bikes caught him off guard and grabbed him, but he managed to lock his phone with his smartwatch and police were able to track the suspects down.

But sadly, Mr Webb’s phone was not recovered.

What is the Metropolitan Police doing to stop phone snatching?

As well as the latest Operation EchoStep win, officers have made hundreds of arrests in a bid to stop phone snatchers from targetting Londoners.

They arrested 230 suspected phone snatchers in the space of just a week, and recovered 1,000 mobiles during their raids.

Officers also carried out raids in second-hand phone shops and used helicopters to find the thieves.

Commander Owain Richards, who is leading the Met’s response to phone thefts, said: ‘We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale, fuelled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad.

‘By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital. But we need help from partners and industry to do more.

‘That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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