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Warning: You are advised to take care when using your smartphone in the streets around the riverside area of Phnom Penh, particularly at night, but phone snatching also occurs during the day. Be aware of your surroundings, and be advised that most phone snatchings from foreigners occur when two young men ride up behind you on a motorbike as you are walking on the street or crossing the road.


Phnom Penh, Cambodia News: At 10:00 pm on May 19, 2019, an unidentified foreign man had his phone snatched out of his hands while he was walking along Sisowath Quay on the Phnom Penh riverfront.
According to eyewitness accounts, the man was walking along the riverfront pushing the buttons on his phone and not looking around him, when suddenly a motorbike with two thieves came past and swiped the phone. Fortunately, the motorbike was blocked, which made the thieves panic and attempt to flee on foot. One of the suspects was caught by police and he gave them the name of his partner in crime. The two suspects were identified as Seng Ratanak, an 18-year-old male, and Adam, a 20-year-old motorbike driver.
The foreign man has laid a complaint at the Psar Kandal 1 police station.

Did he get his phone back?

I'd invite anyone to do a YouTube search for phone snatching in London to see that this is not in anyway confined to Cambodia. It happens everywhere. There's a tendency to read things like this on CEO and assume that Cambodia is not a safe place to use your phone in public. The truth is that phone snatching is a worldwide phenomenon.

It doesn't make it right, I'm just saying that the problem in Cambodia is no better or worse than any other country.

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 10:35 pm I'd invite anyone to do a YouTube search for phone snatching in London to see that this is not in anyway confined to Cambodia. It happens everywhere. There's a tendency to read things like this on CEO and assume that Cambodia is not a safe place to use your phone in public. The truth is that phone snatching is a worldwide phenomenon.

It doesn't make it right, I'm just saying that the problem in Cambodia is no better or worse than any other country.

I agree that this happens everywhere, but, let's be honest, there is a higher chance in PP than other places. I've lived and traveled through SEAsia for years, and never once have I had a run-in anywhere else, but several times in PP have people attempted to blatantly steal from me. Last Wednesday I was pulled out of my moving tuk tuk in an attempt to steal my phone. I'm not a small guy, the people committing these crimes just have zero regard.

The pulling from tuk-tuks is a strange phenomenon now most have the caging around to protect. We had the Chinese guy killed, I know of a European pulled out with serious head injuries (not reported), and now another case mentioned here.

scooters and people with their noses buried in a selfie pose are a fine recipe for snatching.

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 10:35 pm I'd invite anyone to do a YouTube search for phone snatching in London to see that this is not in anyway confined to Cambodia. It happens everywhere. There's a tendency to read things like this on CEO and assume that Cambodia is not a safe place to use your phone in public. The truth is that phone snatching is a worldwide phenomenon.

It doesn't make it right, I'm just saying that the problem in Cambodia is no better or worse than any other country.

So then, by your logic, all countries have an equal rate of phone theft?

You should have stayed with your original assertion that it happens everywhere. But if you are trying to tell people on CEO that it's no worse here than anywhere else, you clearly have missed the boat, as yes, it is MUCH worse here than in MANY countries!

Tarndog wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2019 7:47 pm

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 10:35 pm I'd invite anyone to do a YouTube search for phone snatching in London to see that this is not in anyway confined to Cambodia. It happens everywhere. There's a tendency to read things like this on CEO and assume that Cambodia is not a safe place to use your phone in public. The truth is that phone snatching is a worldwide phenomenon.

It doesn't make it right, I'm just saying that the problem in Cambodia is no better or worse than any other country.

So then, by your logic, all countries have an equal rate of phone theft?

You should have stayed with your original assertion that it happens everywhere. But if you are trying to tell people on CEO that it's no worse here than anywhere else, you clearly have missed the boat, as yes, it is MUCH worse here than in MANY countries!

You might be right, you might be wrong. I'll admit I have no idea what the official statistics are and after a quick Google search, while there is some data on phone thefts by country, Cambodia doesn't seem to register on any of them. I assume it's because Cambodia doesn't publish that information. So in that regard, I'll conceded that my comments weren't based on any factual evidence.

I'd be interested to know where you get your data from?

Higher chance of a phone snatching in OP compared to London? Probably... but least the chance if being stabbed is a lot less than in London.

jjolokia wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 11:02 pm

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 10:35 pm I'd invite anyone to do a YouTube search for phone snatching in London to see that this is not in anyway confined to Cambodia. It happens everywhere. There's a tendency to read things like this on CEO and assume that Cambodia is not a safe place to use your phone in public. The truth is that phone snatching is a worldwide phenomenon.

It doesn't make it right, I'm just saying that the problem in Cambodia is no better or worse than any other country.

I agree that this happens everywhere, but, let's be honest, there is a higher chance in PP than other places. I've lived and traveled through SEAsia for years, and never once have I had a run-in anywhere else, but several times in PP have people attempted to blatantly steal from me. Last Wednesday I was pulled out of my moving tuk tuk in an attempt to steal my phone. I'm not a small guy, the people committing these crimes just have zero regard.

That's strange, because I've lived in Phnom Penh for more than 14 years now and have never had that experience and I am quite small/ skinny/ wiry or whatever you want to call it. I lived in a lot of what could be called "ghetto" areas before I ever hit these shores though, maybe that's the difference?