A Tottenham woman ran 2km to retrieve her stolen phone, discovering six others hidden in a hedge during her pursuit of the thief
Tottenham: A woman named Izzy Du went on an unexpected adventure this week. She was just walking down the street when two guys on a bike snatched her phone right out of her hand.
Without thinking twice, Izzy took off after them. She ran nearly two kilometers, which is about 1.2 miles. Eventually, she spotted the bike stopping up ahead. One of the thieves jumped off and handed her phone to someone else.
But Izzy didn’t give up. She caught up to the second guy and held him until the police showed up. After that, she used her laptop to track her phone down. Guess what? She found it stashed in a plastic bag in a hedge, along with six other stolen phones!
Izzy was frustrated because she had told the police where to look, but they didn’t seem to help much. She felt like they were making excuses instead of taking action.
In total, she recovered seven phones that day. A 16-year-old boy was arrested for theft, and the police are still trying to figure out who the other thief was.
Izzy shared that she was juggling a heavy bag and trying to change her music when the theft happened. She described the moment as gut-wrenching, saying, “My heart dropped.”
Her phone was crucial for her work, and she felt the timing couldn’t have been worse. As she chased the thieves, she was shouting that she needed her phone back.
She managed to return three of the phones to their original owners, who had also been victims that day. The other three went to the police.
According to the Met Police, a staggering 72,936 mobile phones were stolen from January to November 2024, but only 750 were recovered in the first half of the year.
Cdr Owain Richards emphasized the seriousness of phone theft, calling it invasive and sometimes violent. He assured the public that they’re working hard to make London safer.