Smartphone thefts are not new and we have seen how Apple and other companies have tried to mitigate this with anti-theft measures, such as Find my iPhone and Activation Lock being some of them, but it seems that in New York City and St. Louis, a new method of snatching iPhones has been uncovered which has led to the technique being coined, “Apple Picking”. Basically it involves the thief approaching the victim and asking for the time, which admittedly seems innocent enough, but if you don’t wear a watch, the next best thing would be to pull your phone from your pocket, right?
When the phone is taken out of the pocket, the thief then determines if the phone has any value. For example if I pulled out an old feature phone, obviously it isn’t worth any trouble to the thief, but if I were to pull out a brand new iPhone 5s or the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, well obviously the thief has hit the jackpot and will then grab the phone and run off. Of course this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give strangers the time of the day, but this is a new technique that is definitely worth keeping an eye out for. Wearing a watch will probably help as well, unless of course your watch is extremely valuable as well.
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