An international crime ring was exposed in London thanks to a single iPhone — and the story reveals a particularly fascinating dimension of the effects of China's censorship regime.
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iPhone theft in England has become a serious epidemic, with most cases concentrated in tourist-saturated London.
Skilled thieves roam the streets and vanish in an instant with iPhones worth a thousand dollars or more — sometimes snatching them directly from a user's hands in a swift motorcycle drive-by.
An estimated 40,000 iPhones are stolen each year and shipped to China, where they sell for thousands of dollars, driven by the fact that they make it easier to circumvent China's internet censorship.
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One recently stolen device continued broadcasting its location even after the thieves had packed it and sent it on its way to Heathrow Airport, bound for China.
The device's owner directed police to the scene, where officers were surprised to discover a massive quantity of handsets packed into the same shipment box.
An investigation of those devices quickly led to the identification of gang members, and the phones seized from them — along with information obtained during questioning — pointed investigators toward additional suspects.
Authorities hope that dismantling the ring will reduce the number of such thefts, though as long as prices in China continue to break records, stolen iPhones will remain an especially lucrative temptation for criminals.
*Pictured: A pair of criminals on a motorcycle snatching an iPhone from a passerby before immediately fleeing. Source: BBC.*