Mobile phones are the new sneakers. Remember back when all of the newspapers were reporting headlines about kids being beaten up or even murdered by others for their shoes? Well it appears that cell phones are the new shoes today. Scan through the local news headlines for stories related to mobile phones and you’ll see that a large percentage of these stories are about criminals who are attacking individuals on the street and stealing their phones. Are mobile phones the hot new commodity on the streets? And does this mean that we have to be worried about violence if we’re using our cell phones in public?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the stories that have shown up in the headlines recently to gain a better understanding of what type of risks we’re facing when we carry mobile phones and how to better protect ourselves against these types of criminals:

Mobile Phone Robberies

The most common type of mobile phone crime seems to be the straightforward robbery in which the criminal approaches the victim and takes his or her mobile phone away. One example of this happened recently in Ohio where a woman was in her car when she was approached by a thief who demanded her mobile phone. The thief took the phone as well as the tags to her car and took off but was eventually apprehended. Another case like this happened in Kansas City. In this instance, a man approached a woman at her home and asked to use her phone. He then refused to return the phone and brandished a gun to indicate that he might harm her if she tried to get the phone back. In both cases the only thing that was taken was the mobile phone and the victim was left unharmed.

Violent Attacks for Mobile Phones

The aforementioned mobile phone robberies are frightening but at least no one was harmed when they occurred. That is not the case in many other instances of cell phone theft. It seems to be increasingly common for an individual to get attacked by a gang of people, beaten up and badly injured and to have the mobile phone stolen in the process of the attack.

There have been three recent incidents in which three men attacked a fourth individual in this manner:

1. In Milton Keynes, England a man in his early twenties was attacked on the street by three men of a similar age. He was beaten up and sustained cuts and bruises. His Samsung mobile phone was stolen as a part of the attack.
2. In New Jersey, United States a similar situation occurred in which three boys in their late teens attacked a man on the street and beat him up before stealing his cell phone. He was punched and kicked and then his pockets were rifled through until his phone was found and taken.
3. In London, three men approached a fourteen year old boy and attacked him for his mobile phone. They were joined by other men in the attack. The boy was badly beaten and ended up being stabbed in the leg before his mobile phone was taken from him.

Crimes of Opportunity

These cases of mobile phone theft seem to be cases in which theft of the mobile phones is the primary reason for committing the crime. In other cases, the crime may be geared towards a more general robbery and the cell phone may become a part of that. For example, a man recently had his backpack stolen while he was traveling through South America. His phone was in the backpack and he failed to notify his phone company of the loss. When he returned home from the trip, he discovered that the mobile phone had been used so much that he had a $24000 bill waiting for him. In this case, he couldn’t necessarily have prevented the crime of theft but he could have prevented the amount of damages done to him as a result of that theft. The thieves just happened to luck out with finding a phone in their stolen goods.

How to Protect Yourself from Mobile Phone Crimes

These crimes are scary because we’ve all got mobile phones and there seems to be very little that we can do to protect ourselves from theft if someone indeed wants to come take away our phones. However, there are a few things that we can do to limit the chances that we’ll be impacted by these types of crimes.

Things that you should do to protect yourself from mobile phone theft and from injury should a mobile phone theft occur include:

- Stay vigilant when you are walking around outside especially if you are on your mobile phone. People who are aware of what’s happening around them are less likely to become victims of street crime. People speaking on mobile phones are often distracted and therefore make themselves into easy targets. Always be aware of what’s happening around you and you’re less likely to be victimized by this type of criminal.
- Keep an eye on your belongings. People will find it a lot easier to steal your mobile phone if you leave your stuff out where they can snatch it.
- Don’t let strangers use your mobile phone. We saw in one of these cases that the victim was tricked into the theft because she let someone borrow her phone. If she had said “no” when he asked then she may not have had her phone stolen.
- Cooperate with thieves if you are attacked. If you do find yourself in the unfortunate position of becoming a victim of a violent or non-violent mobile phone robbery then you should cooperate as much as possible. Let the thieves have your phone; you can cancel the phone and get a new one once you’ve reached safety.

Mobile phone crimes seem to be increasingly common. Perhaps this is a result of the recession; crimes of theft have gone up in general as people have gotten more desperate for money. You can’t just stop carrying a mobile phone in today’s society so it’s important that you learn how to protect yourself from these situations.