British thieves have realized it’s more profitable to snatch the iPhone from your hand than risk breaking into your home for a no-name DVD player.
Ten years ago, there were an estimated 1.28 million domestic burglaries in England and Wales, according to the British Crime Survey (BCS). By, 2008/09 that number had fallen to 744,000 burglaries.
The drop, one researcher says, is due to expensive portable gadgets and cheap home electronics.
“While DVD players for example, got cheaper, certain consumer items became smaller and were very, very expensive and sought after,” said James Treadwell, a lecturer at the University of Leicester’s Department of Criminology. So the latest mobile phone, or the latest iPod, which people carry about them, have become targets for robbers.”
This change isn’t likely limited to the UK, we’ve reported on what looks like an uptick of iPhone snatchings in the US, too.
It’d be interesting to see if Apple products, recognizable at a glance and with plenty of consumer cachet, are particularly appealing to thieves.
