An eCrime wave is sweeping the city with iPads, smartphones and other pricey devices now more popular with Big Apple thieves than even cold hard cash, cops say.
Half of the nearly 16,000 robberies in New York over the first 10 months of this year involved the trendy gadgets — mostly cell phones, an NYPD study found.
“This makes electronics the single most stolen property type, surpassing even hard currency,” says the report.
The thieves’ most wanted gadget is the iPhone, which accounts for over 70% of all stolen cell phones on subways and buses, the NYPD analysis reveals.
Computers, tablets and MP3 players also account for nearly half the burglaries and 35% of all grand larcenies citywide, police said.
“The problem of electronic device theft has grown exponentially, but can and must be controlled,” the report warns.
And the numbers are much likely worse, the police report says, because police record-keeping — hampered by poor report-taking and forms lacking more descriptive terminology — needs to be improved.
“We cannot identify what devices are stolen where or at what times,” the report says.
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2 Responses
I noticed Nooks/Kindles were not on the list probably cause they don’t know how to read.
I was told in 1992 by the Bell Atlantic Mobile (now Verizon) sales rep not to worry because if the phone was stolen it could never be used by the thief except to track him down and prosecute. I guess the newer technology that secretly tracks Apple customers has advanced to the point where it responsibly protects thieves’ privacy. Nice.