Australian actress Danielle Spencer reported that her recent trip to London was disrupted by a pickpocket who stole her new smartphone from her bag. Spencer, 57, shared the incident on Instagram, noting that she had limited photographic evidence of her visit due to the theft.
Spencer issued a warning to tourists, advising them to "zip up your bags" and for men not to carry phones or money in back pockets. "If you find yourself in that neck of the woods, it's a bit of an issue there," she wrote. She added that she had forgotten to zip her bag pocket, leaving it vulnerable.
Her followers shared similar experiences, with some recounting instances of phones being snatched from hands by individuals on scooters or from zipped bags by opportunistic thieves. One commenter noted attaching their phone with a retractable wire for security.
London has faced ongoing issues with phone theft. The Marylebone district has been identified as a particular hotspot, with reports suggesting a phone is stolen there every 15 minutes. In the past year, Westminster, the borough that includes Marylebone, accounted for nearly a third of all thefts in London, with 18,932 reported incidents.
Other boroughs with high theft numbers included Camden and Southwark, each reporting 5,276 incidents, followed by Hackney with 3,977. Lower numbers were recorded in outer boroughs such as Sutton and Richmond-upon-Thames.
Recent figures indicate that phone theft has a low rate of prosecution, with fewer than one percent of offenses resulting in a charge and nearly nine in ten cases closed without a suspect being identified. However, the Metropolitan Police reported that targeted efforts in Westminster and the West End have led to a 45.8 percent reduction in offenses so far this year. Across London, personal theft and robbery offenses involving mobile phones have decreased by 18 percent in the twelve months leading up to May 2026.