Picture this: you’re strolling down a fairly busy street, heading to dinner while using your new iPhone 16 Pro for directions. Suddenly, a masked person on an e-bike zooms up beside you, grabs your Desert Titanium iPhone, and speeds away in an instant. It may sound like an isolated incident, yet this is exactly what transpired for Dimitar Stanimiroff just last week in London, and he’s not the only victim…
Recent statistics reveal that a mobile phone is stolen roughly every 6 minutes in London, aggregating to about 64,000 stolen devices annually. Such occurrences are so prevalent that the City of London Police have created specialized task forces to combat these gangs and even released a blog post offering advice on how to better safeguard your mobile device when in public.
Over the years, Apple has made significant advancements with anti-theft measures like Activation Lock and “parts pairing” protocols designed to be a deterrent against thieves and to reduce incidents akin to Stanimiroff’s. But is that sufficient?
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Stanimiroff shared his experience on LinkedIn. Despite the distressing event and the loss of his pricey device, the officer from the Met he reported to stated he “got lucky!” She elaborated that these criminals frequently attempt to run their victims over to seize their phones, and that many individuals aren’t agile enough to evade an e-bike traveling at speeds approaching 70 mph!
Using the Find My feature, Stanimiroff was able to track his iPhone 16 Pro to multiple locations before it went offline. Unfortunately, after he provided the officer with the location information, she informed him that due to the frequency of these crimes, they lacked the manpower to conduct investigations and typically close cases on the same day they are reported.
With the release of iOS 7 in 2013, Apple introduced the Activation Lock, preventing anyone from erasing data from an iPhone without the original owner’s Apple ID and password. This innovation made Apple devices much less appealing to thieves overnight. They lost the ability to resell fully functional devices to local pawn shops or online platforms like eBay and Craigslist, leading them to pivot toward the less lucrative parts market.
For years, the underground trade in iPhone parts continued without significant interference. However, around 2018, Apple began digitally linking the serial number of the iPhone X’s battery to the serial number of the device, referred to as “parts pairing.” Unauthorized repair shops quickly discovered they would get service warnings if the battery wasn’t sourced from Apple. By the time of the iPhone 12, this practice expanded to additional components, including the screen, cameras, and Face ID sensors.
This situation sparked considerable debate surrounding DIY repairs. In spite of Apple’s efforts to combat and lobby against new regulations, Oregon and Colorado enacted Right to Repair bills that completely ban parts pairing beginning January 1, 2025. Nonetheless, parts pairing is still permissible in the UK as of now.
It’s challenging to determine the fate of every device that is stolen. Recent police actions, however, have indicated that most stolen phones do not remain in London, with many being shipped overseas to Shenzhen, China—the very location where many are manufactured. If criminals can’t outsmart the iPhone’s security features to erase data, the devices are typically dismantled for parts and sold to resellers or recycling facilities.
Apple’s control over iPhone repairs has resulted in a peculiar situation. With new Right to Repair laws emerging in states like Oregon and Colorado, Apple’s parts pairing policy appears increasingly vulnerable. If additional states and European nations adopt similar positions in favor of DIY repairs, it will be intriguing to observehow this development will influence the overall situation.
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