This is the shocking moment a defenceless woman carrying her shopping was targeted by a brazen phone thief in broad daylight.
In a clip caught on CCTV the woman can be seen making her way home in Newham, London, with a man following close behind her.
The thug, sporting a Nike backpack, black clothes and hat, then grabs the woman’s phone and yanks it out of her hands as she tries to hold on.
The woman falls to the floor as he pulls away violently, spilling her shopping on the pavement.
Wasting no time, the yob runs away with the device in hand before the victim decides to try run after him.
A man on a bicycle and a moped see the attack and zoom to the pavement but are not seen to offer assistance.
The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment on the footage, said to have been recorded in February.
The theft comes weeks after it was revealed more than 70,000 phones were snatched in the streets of London alone in 2024, out of an estimated 100,000 thefts across the UK.
A Newham local was walking home when a man hounds her down on the residential road
The thug then corners the woman carrying shopping against the wall and grabs her phone
She tries to hold on but he yanks it out of her hands in a violent struggle
Wasting no time, the yob runs away with the device as the woman lies crumpled on the floor among her shopping
Some 70,137 devices were stolen amid a scourge of criminal gangs using e-bikes and scooters to tot up high numbers of phones to sell abroad for parts.
Since October 2020, instances of the crime in the capital have been steadily increasing.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, a shocking 66,528 phones were stolen in London, according to statistics produced by the Met Police.
It is thought phone snatching could cost consumers up to £70million each year.
The data, from an FOI request to the Met Police, is thought to be a significant underestimate of the true scale of the problem, as it only includes thefts reported to the force.
Shockingly, some 40 percent of all London phone snatches take place in Westminster and the West End.
More than 70,000 phones were snatched in the streets of London alone in 2024, out of an estimated 100,000 thefts across the UK
Thieves have been tracked racing across the capital, although 40 percent of thefts take place in just one borough
Some 70,137 devices were stolen in London last year amid a scourge of criminal gangs using e-bikes and scooters to tot up high numbers of phones to sell abroad for parts
E-bikes and mopeds are often snapped mounting the pavement before riders snatch phones out of pedestrians’ hands
And in February, more than 1,000 stolen phones were seized and 230 people arrested in a week-long blitz, with Scotland Yard using plain-clothed officers and phone-tracking data to gather intelligence and hunt down the smartphone snatchers plaguing the capital’s streets.
But in recent months, ‘various operations’ deployed by the police force involving monitoring CCTV footage, increasing officers’ awareness and ’employing’ traffic units and surge teams have brought about a decrease in phone theft.
A 27 per cent drop was recorded in November 2024 while a 43 per cent decrease was achieved the following month.
The force has been using plain-clothed officers and phone-tracking data to gather intelligence and hunt down the smartphone snatchers.
The Met says previously said anyone who has lost or had a phone stolen should use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via the Police National Mobile Property Register.
