iPhone Stolen – In recent weeks, the number of iPhones stolen in London that thieves manage to reactivate has dropped sharply. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley credits Apple’s Stolen Device Protection—enabled by default on iOS 26.4—as well as Apple’s role in m
For London thieves who rely on speed and a clean escape, the job has gotten harder in recent weeks. The pattern now is less about grabbing an iPhone and more about the grim math of what comes after—whether the device can be unlocked, reset, and turned into cash.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in an interview that the number of iPhones stolen in London that have been reactivated by thieves has plummeted in recent weeks. That means the phones are far less likely to be sold. and it also offers a direct route to fewer iPhones taken in the first place.
The thefts have been a real problem for London in recent years. Some thieves have even been known to hand back a stolen phone if it turns out not to be an iPhone. The typical method has been brutally familiar: thieves use mopeds to ride up to a victim. snatch the iPhone. and speed away. They don’t want the device for themselves. They want to sell it on for cash—and that only works if they can unlock and reset it.
Rowley’s comments came as he called on tech firms to make stolen phones harder to unlock and sell. He also acknowledged that Apple appears to have already made a huge dent in the problem through an existing security feature.
Apple’s protection has been built for the moment a thief tries to profit. iPhones have supported Stolen Device Protection since 2023. But Apple enabled it by default with the iOS 26.4 update in March 2026. When Stolen Device Protection is enabled. it requires biometric authentication when performing a range of actions—crucially. those include turning off Lost Mode and erasing the phone’s content and settings.
There’s another detail that matters for stolen phones on the street: some security actions require a delay before they can be enacted. That creates time for the owner to mark the device as lost using the Find My network.
The result is stark for anyone holding the phone after a theft. A thief cannot reset an iPhone even if they know the passcode. Rowley told the BBC Radio 4’s Today program that thieves were using software to “factory reset” devices before selling them on. but he said Apple has “cracked” the issue. He pointed to data showing that the “vast majority of phones” stolen in recent weeks have not been reset.
Those figures land in a specific place: the same London theft operation that depended on reactivation is now facing a bottleneck. When a reset doesn’t stick, the stolen device stops being a saleable product—and the incentive collapses.
Rowley also said the Metropolitan Police has entered into an “intelligence sharing agreement” with Apple. The hope is for a better understanding of how iPhones are being stolen and sold in London, and what changes will actually hold the line on the next wave of thefts.
London iPhone theft Stolen Device Protection Apple iOS 26.4 Find My Lost Mode Metropolitan Police cybersecurity device security
Good, thieves can’t just wipe it and sell it anymore.
So wait is this the iPhone update that makes your phone harder to reset? Because my cousin said he couldn’t get into his own phone after some settings thing. I dunno.
I read somewhere Apple does this by default like it brick-checks the phone, but thieves will just use another method. Like can they just swap the SIM or something? Seems like people still get robbed so it can’t be that simple.
London thieves on mopeds snatching iPhones has been a thing for forever, but now suddenly it drops because an update? Idk sounds like PR. Also iOS 26.4… does that mean the police are relying on Apple more than actual enforcement? I’m confused but I’m glad it’s supposed to help.