An iPhone, Swiped

Well I had a fun – read: not at all fun – rather chaotic day with technology. And now that it's ending, I just want to write it down as hopefully a bit of a warning to others, and a bit of catharsis for myself.

Earlier today, I was walking down the street. It was a beautiful early spring day in London and I was on my way to pick my daughter up from a class she's enrolled in during her spring break. It was in a particularly affluent part of town, where the major road had just been redone. As such, the sidewalks are fairly massive. There I am, just walking along listening to a podcast when I take out my phone to check my ETA on the map. I suddenly have this weird sense, almost like a premonition, that someone or something is coming up behind me, fast. I start to turn.

That little turn gave all the opening needed for a man on an electric bike who had ridden up on the sidewalk, to lean over and snatch my phone right out of my hand. It happened so fast that I honestly wasn't sure what had happened at first. Something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what it was. Had he hit me? Was it an accident?

Nope, he had just taken my phone.

When I realized what just happened, it was too late. The adrenaline pumping, I instinctively started to give chase. But within seconds he was back on the road and zooming off at a speed I couldn't possibly match. I yelled out "hey!" but it was in vain. The guy briefly looked back as if to say "got you". There were only a few people around and what could they do anyway? Run into the road to try to stop a guy on an electric bike now going full speed? The podcast I was listening too cut out in my AirPods. He was gone.

I felt a strange mixture of being dumbfounded, mad, and then terrified. This guy had my phone! I mean, everything is on my phone. It's 2025. Everything is on everyones' phones.

Thankfully my mild gadget obsession meant that I had a few other devices on me. Ones that were not stolen. I immediately used my Apple Watch, which thankfully had a cellular connection (which I basically never use because I always have my phone on me – until I don't!). I was able to call my wife through the watch using the AirPods. My mind was racing about what to do but the priority was still obviously to go pick up my child. Which I did, of course. But once I had her situated I took out my iPad and opened "Find My". This did indeed show my iPhone on the move and just a few blocks away. I put the device into "Lost Mode" as I didn't want to remotely wipe it immediately just in case I could somehow track it down quickly.¹

I could see where it seemed like the perpetrator had stopped, but I wasn't about to engage with a child in tow – and honestly, probably wouldn't have anyway, it's a phone we're talking about here. But I did, of course, think about it. Because it's also not just a phone, it's a device with everything on it. Credit cards. Passwords. Pictures of my family. In many ways, it's the worst possible thing you could have stolen. Especially when it's unlocked, obviously.

Once the little one was on her way back home, I called the police (the non-emergency line). They were very helpful and sent a couple officers within 10 minutes. I was still tracking my iPhone on my iPad, but sadly, it hadn't updated since it stopped in the one position. Either they had shut it off or disengaged the cellular service so it wouldn't ping its location. Still, the police wanted to do a quick sweep of the area, so they told me to hop in the police van.

As shitty of a situation as it was, this part was sort of awesome. I don't think I had been in a vehicle accelerating that fast since high school. And this was legal. I was the law! Well, a passenger anyway. Sirens blaring, they weaved in and out of traffic, making sharp turns down alleys, hoping to catch the criminal off guard in the general area. We did a few loops as I kept my eyes peeled for the man I had seen only a brief glimpse of as he sped away.

Sadly, he had vanished. The signal was long since cold. I thanked the officers, officially filed a report, and immediately hopped back on my iPad to wipe the device. Because it was clearly offline now, it couldn't do it immediately, but Apple's notice said it would when (if) it came back online. I locked down the SIM.

Defeated, I headed to an Apple Store – which happened to be just a few blocks away – and bought a new iPhone. I used my nearly 20 years of experience with such things to restore the new device from a backup of my old device from this morning as fast as humanly possible. It still takes far too long to do this, IMO. But after about an hour, I was back with a partially working device (though the full restore of apps and photos and the like would take another few hours, as always). Another hour or so on hold with the phone carrier and I was back in business.

I then spent the rest of my day resetting basically every password I have. More out of precaution. I was monitoring credit cards, and other various surfaces that I could think of, but nothing seemed to pop up. The device did seem to come back online a couple hours later and Apple alerted me that it had been fully wiped. I think Apple's relatively simple remote lock down procedures within Find My had salvaged the situation.²

With the new purchase, my wallet was substantially lighter, but thankfully those tariffs hadn't kicked in yet – oh wait, I'm in the UK anyway. Also, as I later found out, my credit card had stolen device protection. So, at least for now, this was more just a giant pain in the ass than anything more troublesome, thankfully.³

I just still cannot believe how quickly it all happened. Within seconds my phone was gone. I had heard plenty of horror stories about similar situations, but it did not seem like it would ever happen to me – I'm someone who had owned every single iPhone since 2007 and have somehow never even cracked a screen. I'm careful to the point where I was confident I didn't need Apple Care over the years. I hold such things pretty dearly, quite literally, until, I guess, I didn't.

So yeah, when you're out there walking around, even if in the middle of the day in what feels like safe confines, be vigilant. Thieves are lurking, watching, and waiting to swipe devices left and right.

What a strange, awful feeling. A mixture of embarrassment and dread. It just seems like you can't possibly have something taken from you that easily – something with so much personal information, no less. Gone in an instant.

¹ As it turns out, you can wipe it and still track it, I believe. Provided the devices is still on.

² I mean, I hope so. What am I missing here? I assume the point is now just to try to sell it rather than do anything with the actual information that was on it...

³ Again, knock on all the wood. But I can't think of what else I need to do...