A brazen thief was videoed trying to snatch a phone from an unsuspecting woman quietly waiting outside a major train station.
Shocking footage showed the predatory E-bike rider attempting to grab the device from her hand.
The footage filmed through a parked car windscreen showed the black clad, masked rider sneak up from behind the busily scrolling woman.
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And then violently try to rip it from her grasp.
Luckily, he failed and rapidly sped away, leaving the stunned woman behind.
It happened outside Waterloo train station, central London, around 3 am.
It was part of a spiralling epidemic of phone crime blighting the capital.
A voiceover on the video described what happened, as reported by Need To Know.
A man said, “Right guys, look at this.
“There’s a bike coming round the corner.
“Watch how quickly he tries to do this.
“I saw him coming up and I didn’t know whether he was going to do it or not.
“But when he spun around behind me, I beeped my car horn.
“You might see the woman move a little bit when I beep my horn.
“And look, he tried to grab her phone…and gone.
“But yeah, she was paying no attention.”
Phone thefts in London have exploded.
According to Met Police figures, 117,211 phones were stolen during 2024, up 25% on the 2019 figure of 91,481.
The force said organised crime groups had pivoted to dealing in stolen phones because of how lucrative it could be.
And that a phone-snatcher could make up to £400 per stolen phone, with devices fetching up to £4,000 when sold in China.
The Met Police was approached for comment.
A spokesperson said they have had no report of the attempted phone snatch outside Waterloo on October 29.
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