ThummerHow to Avoid Phone Snatching: What Police Advise
Most phone-safety advice online comes from tech sites and insurers. The people who see snatch theft every day are the police, and their advice is remarkably consistent from London to Texas. We collected what police forces and campus safety teams actually tell the public, grouped it by the moment it applies to, and noted where the evidence is thin.
Why it's worth taking seriously
Snatching isn't only about losing a handset. In May 2025, City of London Police said figures showed that around £7,000 a day was defrauded from victims following the theft of their phone. We explain how that happens in how thieves drain bank apps from a stolen phone.
The same force reported that phone snatching in the Square Mile fell by nearly 30% from January to April 2025, compared with the same months of 2024, after targeted policing. The problem is real, and it can be reduced.
On the street: the moment of the grab
London's "Look Up, Look Out" campaign, run with TfL, the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police, carries the clearest street advice we found. These are the Met's tips, as published by Hackney Council in March 2025:
- Be aware of your surroundings, and try not to text or use apps while walking.
- Go hands-free for calls, and be discreet when you use your phone, or keep it out of sight.
- Be extra careful at bus stops, train stations and curbsides.
- If you have to use your phone, stand away from the roadside, close to a building or wall.
- Hold it in the hand closest to the wall, so it's harder to take.
For where snatches cluster in the capital, see our London phone theft guide.
UCL's crime prevention adviser adds two specific moments. Watch for bikes and mopeds riding on the pavement, since some thieves dress as delivery riders. And avoid pulling your phone out as you leave a station or other transport hub, when people check for signal and get distracted.
The same adviser suggests a Bluetooth headset so you don't have to hold the phone in front of you during calls. It's the same idea as the Met's hands-free tip: the less time the phone spends in an outstretched hand near the road, the fewer chances a passing rider gets.
Police in Alexandria, Virginia, give the same core advice in a checklist for delivery drivers: avoid distractions like phone use while walking or waiting.
In crowds, bars and events: the quiet theft
Not every theft is a grab. In crowds, it's a pickpocket.
- Front pockets, not back. Austin police, in tips released in November 2025, say to keep your phone and wallet in your front pants pockets. Hoboken, New Jersey, police say the same, and Toronto police warned in 2025 against back pockets, where a thief can easily grab a phone.
- Zipped isn't always safe. Toronto police said that in some cases, suspects took phones from zipped-closed purses and bag pockets. Keep bags in front of you and in sight.
- Austin's less obvious tip: don't carry phones or valuables in crossbody purses, and consider purse latches or locks that make a bag harder to open.
- Never leave it on the table. Hoboken police warned in 2024 of what they call "apple picking" in crowded bars and restaurants, where thieves wait for people to set phones down or leave them within easy reach.
- Keep cards and ID out of your phone case. Both Hoboken and Austin police say this, so one theft doesn't take everything.
- Don't hand your phone to strangers. Boston police advised people to avoid handing devices to strangers under any circumstance.
Heading to markets, airports or holiday crowds? Our holiday travel phone-safety checklist puts these habits in one list.
Before you leave home: limit the damage
Police advice doesn't stop at keeping hold of the phone. Much of it is about making a stolen phone worth less.
- Use strong, separate passcodes. City of London Police recommend unique passcodes or facial recognition for sensitive apps, two-step verification, and not keeping passwords in unencrypted notes. Austin police add: keep your screen lock password separate from your settings and cloud passwords.
- Turn on remote locking and tracking. City of London Police point out that most smartphones support it. On Android, that's Theft Detection Lock, Remote Lock and the other theft protection settings (our Android theft protection explainer walks through each one); on iPhone, Stolen Device Protection and Find My.
- Write down your IMEI. UCL's adviser suggests dialing *#06# to find it, so your provider can block the phone if it's stolen.
- Register or mark your phone. UCL's adviser recommends registering it with Immobilise, a UK property register, so police can return it if it's recovered. City of London Police suggest getting your phone marked for the same reason. Outside the UK, a written IMEI and your carrier account details do a similar job.
- Add medical ID or emergency contact details. City of London Police say this helps a recovered phone get back to you. The force said that of the more than 1,000 phones it recovered over two years (to 2025), fewer than half were returned, because the owner couldn't be found.
Some people add a layer for the grab itself: a wrist strap or tether, a firmer holding habit, or an app. Thummer, for example, locks an Android phone within five seconds when the owner's thumb lifts off an on-screen bubble. None of these replaces the street habits above; they cover different moments.
If it happens anyway
- Let it go. Alexandria police say do not resist, argue or chase. The FCC says to never try to recover a stolen smart device alone, and Apple says don't try to recover the device yourself.
- Don't track it down yourself. UCL's adviser says to set up tracking but not to track or confront thieves yourself, because that could be dangerous. Give the location to police.
- Lock it remotely, from a friend's phone if needed, at android.com/lock (Remote Lock must be turned on beforehand) or with Lost Mode on iPhone.
- Call your carrier so it can block the phone; City of London Police say to do it straight away.
- Call your bank if money is at risk, and report the theft to police. Our first-10-minutes checklist covers the order.
What we couldn't find
We found no police source that measures which tip works best. This advice reflects what officers see, not controlled studies. The City of London drop came alongside targeted enforcement, so it doesn't show what individual habits achieve on their own.
The bottom line
The police advice boils down to three things. Use your phone less, and more carefully, where thieves work: curbs, station exits, bus stops and crowds. Carry it where it's hard to take. And set it up so a stolen phone is locked, blocked and worth little. None of it costs anything.