Phone and Bag snatching in Phnom Penh increasing

[CEOCambodiaNews]

More and more cases of motorbike drive-bys, where there are guys who drive up and do phone snatching or bag snatching in Phnom Penh. Police should be on this as it is happening more often, especially on riverside and tourist areas.
Latest complaint:

Baltej Singh
18 hrs
I had a very bad day yesterday. I was taking a ride on a motorbike taxi to go back to hostel in phnom penh. I was showing location to the driver by gps and my phone was in my hand. Someone snatch my phone from my hand. My phone is locked with a password and my fingerprint. I had registered my phone on samsung's Find my device. But its not finding the location of my phone. It shows only if my phone would be connected to a new network as u guys can see in screenshot i will attach in this post. If anyone can help me with this situation or advice me what should i do. I will be very thankful...

Facebook.

[ExPenhMan]

There's more of everything happening the last couple of years in PP. It was one of the things that turned me off of returning to PP.

Read some of the posts on the FB expat pages. Someone asks where they can buy a second-hand phone. Eventually they spill the beans their phone was snatched in a lift from a cafe. Other commenters chime in with loss of passports, phones, wallets, plus break-ins and muggings. Just on a single thread. Saw this theft phenomenon reported on frequently in the expat pages.

[jaynewcastle]

Are there more & more tourists walking around with expensive phones in their hands & not paying any attention to whats happening around them I wonder

[John Bingham]

I see locals riding around on their phones all the time, but stationary targets are easier.
Foreign tourists and the recently arrived are particularly easy marks as they are often not
so aware of their surroundings/ risks and don't really know what to do or say when something like this happens.
I get the picture that many have perhaps led fairly sheltered lives before they came here and consequently don't have too many street smarts.

[one_dolla]

quite a lot of this and worse (acid/liquid in the face) happening in London UK in the last few weeks... yoofs on scooters...

[hanno]

I do not think it is worse, this seems to come and go in waves. There are more and more people about with expensive stuff as Jaynewcastle mentioned. And it is not just tourists that get ripped.

[Popeye]

Last week walking down street 154 on the road facing the traffic and a moto came in the inside of me and snatched my glasses case out of my top shirt pocket. Surprise for them, having scored a $ 2 pair on spec's !!!!

[vladimir]

I'm with hanno and LL.

There are many people here earning less than $1/hour.

Wave a $300 phone around, and they realise they can make half a month's wages in a minute.

What do people expect?

Borderline baiting.

[bobsboots]

I'm with hanno and LL.

There are many people here earning less than $1/hour.

Wave a $300 phone around, and they realise they can make half a month's wages in a minute.

What do people expect?

Borderline baiting.

Fair point, of course, but what I don't get is that in Jakarta there are hundreds of thousands of very poor people and hundreds of thousands of people flashing their smart phones, yet bag and phone snatching is surprisingly rare.It is not something you even have to consider while walking. It seems to be something endemic to Cambodia but I wish I knew why. Does it happen so prevalently in Bangkok, New Dehli, Manilla ?

[AndyKK]

I'm with hanno and LL.

There are many people here earning less than $1/hour.

Wave a $300 phone around, and they realise they can make half a month's wages in a minute.

What do people expect?

Borderline baiting.

Earnings are nothing to do with it! They are just plain THIEVES.