Phone thief jumps into London pond to flee police — six stolen handsets recovered

A man on a high-powered e-bike fled Met Police officers into a park and jumped into a shallow pond, where six foil-wrapped phones were later retrieved.

Suspect dives into park pond during Met Police pursuit, six phones seized

A 21-year-old suspected phone thief jumped into a shallow pond in a bid to escape Metropolitan Police officers before being arrested, The Independent reports. Six mobile phones, wrapped in foil, were recovered from the water after his capture.

Officers had attempted to stop the man, who was riding a high-powered e-bike, after his behaviour raised suspicion. CCTV and body camera footage from last month captured the chase, showing him abandoning his bike, sprinting into a nearby park, and leaping into the pond before being detained.

The six handsets retrieved from the pond had been wrapped in foil — a technique used by thieves to block signals and prevent tracking. The suspect has since been released on police bail pending further enquiries.

The incident forms part of a broader picture of falling phone theft across the capital. Data released on Thursday showed 3,963 mobile phone theft and robbery offences in London during August, the lowest August figure since 2022. Between January and August this year, there were 39,793 offences, down from 49,136 over the same period last year. In Westminster, offences have fallen by nearly 50 per cent.

More than 700 people were arrested by the Met last month, and hundreds of suspected stolen handsets were seized during what the force described as its largest-ever crackdown on phone theft.

Commander Andy Featherstone, the Met's lead for tackling phone theft, said: "Phone theft offences are now at a four-year low because of the Met's relentless campaign to crack down on these criminals. This was our biggest operation yet, with officers targeting every stage of the organised criminal chain, including street thieves, handlers and exporters."

The force said cooperation with the technology industry — to make stolen devices harder to sell or reuse — had also contributed to the decline.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "The tide is definitely turning on mobile phone crime in London with 16,000 fewer mobile phones stolen in the past year and neighbourhood crime falling further too. Record funding from City Hall is empowering the Met to go after every single part of the £50 million-a-year trade in stolen phones. New Met Police drones and Sur-Ron bikes are allowing the police to take the fight directly to the street robbers, while street vendor 'middlemen' who unlock stolen devices or break them up for parts are being shut down, and organised gang leaders responsible for smuggling stolen phones out of the country are being brought to book."

Sarah Jones, the minister for policing and crime, said: "I welcome the excellent results from the Met and other forces involved in Operation Reckoning, which demonstrates the tough action and clear resolve of the police to clamp down on phone theft. We are supporting that work by bringing in new powers for police to act much more swiftly where stolen goods have been electronically located and search properties without delay in securing a warrant. We have also put more than 3,800 officers back into neighbourhood roles. Street theft of phones in London is down 21 per cent to August 2026 when compared to the previous year and we continue our work with policing and phone companies on what more can be done to dismantle this criminal business model for good."

Source: The Independent