A Warning: Why Holiday Robbers Are Targeting You
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Your cellphone. Apparently there's a global spike in the number of cellphone thefts, committed by robbers who aren't afraid of using violence to get them... especially, smartphones. They cost the most, bring the biggest return, and are easiest to sell to the status-conscious.
In Paris, cellphone robbers steal hundreds of smartphones every month; recently they apparently stabbed a guy for his. In London, there's a "Mobile Phone Crime Unit" with 30 officers devoted to it. Good God; it's that bad?
Here at home (well, the states, anyway), subway riders in New York are told not to show their phones or other techy toys.
What can you do? Look at your surroundings before you pull out your phone. Think of what you'd do, if you were pulling out your wallet. (Of course, my phone is worth more than the money I ever have in my wallet.) Consider an insurance policy. Look for an app or a program that let's you erase the data on your smartphone, and --better still-- track it with GPS. I'm not sure I believe it, but I just read a news report of a police helicopter tracking the GPS of a stolen iPhone, and arresting the baddies. Seems like a lot of resources devoted to getting a phone back, but still, I'd have loved to have seen the thief's face when the law swooped in.
