London, United Kingdom: Balaclavas and e-bikes have become the armour of teenage boys zooming around London’s roads snatching the mobile phones of unsuspecting commuters and tourists. “You see your bus is in 20 minutes, you get your phone out, start scrolling Instagram, and before you know it there’s a whizzy whirl of an e-bike coming towards you and your phone is gone,” says police officer Hayden O’Connor, whose team AFP joined on a Friday night patrol. London’s police force has invested heavily in clamping down on the phenomenon, with phone thefts falling by 12.3 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to Metropolitan Police figures.
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