ThummerPhone Theft in Amsterdam: What Visitors Should Know
Amsterdam is not a city of armed phone robberies. Its problem is quieter: pickpockets in crowds, on café terraces and at festivals, often working in teams. The good news is that the habits that stop them are simple. Here's what the numbers show, what Amsterdam police and the city's official visitor site advise, and what to do if your phone disappears.
How common is it?
Overall crime in Amsterdam is drifting down. The Amsterdam police region recorded about 89,700 offenses in 2025, 2% fewer than a year earlier, and the number of people pickpocketed and of street robberies both fell, according to crime figures presented jointly by the police, the justice system and the mayor. Even so, Amsterdam still had the highest rate of recorded crime in the Netherlands, at 63 offenses per 1,000 residents, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) data reported by AT5.
Pickpocketing is concentrated here. Dutch police open data show 1,935 registered pickpocketing offenses in Amsterdam in the first nine months of 2026, about 41% of the national total of 4,730. An earlier analysis of the same data by the comparison site Overstappen.nl, covering January to April 2026, counted 867 and found Amsterdam had the most of any Dutch municipality.
Those figures cover everything a pickpocket takes, not just phones. Still, the pattern is clear: Amsterdam accounts for by far the largest share of recorded pickpocketing in the country. We found no official count of phone thefts specifically.
Where phones go missing
Cafés, bars and terraces. In 2024, the Dutch hospitality association KHN passed on a warning that Amsterdam police had seen a rise in pickpocketing, including in bars and restaurants. Pickpockets strike at peak times, on the terrace and around closing time. They often work in teams of two or more, bump into guests, cause a commotion, or ask questions to pull attention away from a phone or bag.
Festivals and big events. Amsterdam's event calendar draws huge crowds, and thieves follow. On King's Day 2022, festivalgoers at the Kingsland festival used Find My iPhone to trace their phones to The Hague, where police found a bag holding 21 mobile phones. During Queer & Pride in 2023, police arrested 18 pickpockets and recovered dozens of stolen phones, mostly iPhones, some wrapped in tinfoil and hidden in a hotel room. Ahead of the 2024 Canal Parade, police warned visitors not to keep a phone in a back pocket, where thieves can reach it more easily.
Busy streets and transit. The city's official visitor site, I amsterdam, warns that pickpockets work crowded places like cafés, bars, restaurants and major events, and that distractions such as someone pushing, touching or asking for directions may be setting you up.
How to keep your phone
- Keep a close eye on it. I amsterdam singles out smartphones as valuables to watch. Don't leave it on a café table, especially on a terrace or near the door.
- No back pockets. Use a front pocket or a zipped inside pocket, as police advised before Pride.
- Treat a sudden bump or question as a warning. Pickpockets often work in teams and use signals. Put a hand on your phone and step away.
- Carry less. I amsterdam suggests keeping valuables in a hotel safe or station locker and carrying little cash.
- Step off the bike path to check directions. Amsterdam's narrow streets tempt people onto cycle lanes and tramways, which the city calls dangerous. Stopping against a wall to check a map keeps you safe from bikes and makes it harder for anyone to reach your hand.
Before you travel: set up the phone
- Write down your IMEI. Dial *#06#, or see how to find your IMEI. I amsterdam advises noting it so police can add your phone to a national stolen phone database when you report a theft.
- Turn on tracking and theft protection. I amsterdam recommends a find-my-phone app, and police urged festivalgoers to install one as a precaution. On Android, Settings > Google > All services > Theft protection has Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock and Remote Lock. On iPhone, turn on Stolen Device Protection.
- Lock down payment apps with their own PIN or face check, and keep cards out of your phone case.
Some travelers add a layer for the grab itself; one option is Thummer, which locks an unlocked Android phone within five seconds if the owner's thumb lifts off an on-screen bubble. In a city where most thefts are pickpocketing rather than snatching, though, a front pocket and a phone kept off the table do most of the work.
If your phone is stolen in Amsterdam
- Lock it remotely from a friend's phone at android.com/lock, or with Find My on iPhone.
- Call your bank and carrier to block cards and your SIM.
- Report it to the police. I amsterdam says you can report online or in person at a police station in the city, by appointment. For non-emergency help or to book an appointment, call 0900-8844, or +31 343 578 844 from a phone with a foreign SIM. Call 112 only for emergencies or a crime in progress.
- Make it a formal report. After Pride 2023, Amsterdam police said a formal report proves ownership and lets them return a recovered phone. Your insurer will want the report too.
- If your tracker shows where it is, tell the police. Amsterdam police have said to file a report first. If the tracker shows the phone sitting still, you can go and look, but do nothing and pass what you see to the police. Never confront or chase anyone.
- Check lost property. For lost belongings, I amsterdam points to the iLost website, where items usually take about three business days to appear.
Our first-10-minutes checklist covers the first steps in order. Going to a festival? See our festival and concert phone-safety guide. Combining Amsterdam with other European cities? See our guides to Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Rome.
What we couldn't find
We found no official Amsterdam figure for phone thefts specifically, and no breakdown of pickpocketing by neighborhood. The police warnings we cite for events are from 2022 to 2024; we didn't find newer event-specific figures.
The bottom line
Amsterdam's phone risk is mostly about crowds and distraction, not force. Keep your phone in your hand or a front pocket, off café tables, and away from anyone who bumps into you or asks you something at close range. Set up tracking and note your IMEI before you go, and file a formal police report if the worst happens.