Walking with expensive phones in Dublin

theres People walking around dub who would “steal the sight out of yer eye” as the late and great much missed G Ryan of RTÉ would say ...

well if he spent 1300 on it then he wants people to see his wonderfully expensive phone. so he'll probably be walking the length and breadth of every street making as many calls as possible. And in doing so he will not be safe. no.

unless he's a big bastard. maybe.

Not safe anywhere in the city to use openly, day or night. Walk in to a shop if you need to use it.

Is this a new twist on the old "Dublin is a sh*thole" trope?

I’ve often used my phone while out an about with no problem. Sometimes I wonder if it’s an alternate Dublin I live in. Genuinely don’t recognise this City that you daren’t walk around. Not saying there aren’t issues, but I find it’s often way overstated on here.

Sure whats the point in having an expensive phone if no one can see it. I have a fairly decent Samsung, it stays in my pocket and if i need to have a phone call 🙄 then I use my earphones.

I work with someone similar. Always has the latest phone, makes sure everyone knows, flaunts it almost.

During a fire drill it Turns out their phone is a cheap Asian knockoff “shell” with no internal chips etc. No battery even. Got for a few yoyos on Ali express - customs don’t bother caring as it’s basically plastic and cheap glass

apparently a big thing among youth, you buy the shell version to appear to have the latest and considered a Billy big balls in the locality

I have a real story for you all!

I had a samsung s something in 2013 if i remember correctly. Was waiting for the bus in Dame street, and i was watching a move on my phone, from the corner of my eye i see a lad, i was taking my headphones off when he yanked the phone from my hands and bolted.

I don't know how but i ran after him (slowly because I'm a big girl) while screaming " stop that guy, he stole my phone" at the top of my lungs.

I stopped because i could never catch up and started crying (to this day i don't know why, it was just a phone at the end of the day)...

I called into a shop and begged them to let them use their phone and i called my then partner and he said forget it, just come home. I refused and was waiting on the guards (i think i called them too, it's a bit fuzzy at this stage).

I was waiting when a guy came back and told be he had chased the robber accross the river and he pointed them out to the guards, he told me to wait for the guards.

Guards came he took me to the station and i got my phone back.

On the way to the station the guard was giving me this lesson of how dangerous it is to have nice things out in public. I pointed out that i had bought that lhone and i wasn't the problem...

To this day i wish i got the name of the lad that gave chase i would have at least bought him a drink.

So yeah, in a couple of hours i saw some of the worst and best that Dublin had to offer 😁

Before IMEI blocking (and Apple's activation blocking) and phones generally having passcodes, a lot of phones were stolen by thieves on bikes - ring foreign premium rate numbers that they eventually get a kickback from and sell the phone.

Really died off quite quickly with blocking. Even expensive parts from stolen phones have their own serials blacklisted so they can't be sold to dodgy repair shops.

I have never had an issue walking around Dublin city centre with my usually expensive phone out, yet if I was in a city I didn't know really I would keep it out of sight I suppose...

Like anything you need to be cafreful and vigilent

Have lived and worked in Dublin city center for 15 years. Have no problem using phone in public. Obviously, normal street smarts apply. It's a pretty low risk activity. In all my time, I only know of 1 person who had a phone stolen (about a decade ago, a female friend had the phone whipped out of her hand by a scummer on a bike on Baggot street during evening rush hour) and that's it.

It's just about applying common sense. You are more like to miss €1,000+ phone than a €200 one.

Go indoors briefly if you desperately need to use it. There are plenty of places more than likely you'd be fine outdoors using it.

But you wouldn't be walking around with +€1,000 phone to your ear on Talbot Street or Abbey Street for example. You'd instinctively know that wasn't the brightest thing to do presumably.

There still would be a small “market”. Scum who might try to flog it online to the reedy gullible who think they’ve got a bargain. You hear callers to Liveline claiming how they’ve been scammed in similar type fashion.

The supply of phones for those scams these days are ones reported stolen (but never were) to insurers and also phones bought on contract and defaulted on. Much easier than trying to mug someone - plenty of people with fancy phones are also going to have fancy gym membership and possibly a fancy drug problem and might be able to beat the shite out of you.

Might still happen the old fashioned way but it is basically unheard of now.

i much prefer if I’m walking in town that if I need to make or take a phone call I stand into a shop or shop doorway to do it... that way I’ve a better perspective of who is around and it’s more relaxing and safer... my phone is old enough it’s a Samsung about 3 years old but when i last looked a year ago some places were still selling it for over 360-420 euros... phone only...

it doesn’t look much as it’s in a fairly basic looking nondescript case a material case that set me back about 15 euros to protect the phone and also to look nondescript on purpose...I had a Galaxy note 5 nicked out of my Mater hospital ward when I went for physio a few years ago, I only had about it about 10 months... but no cameras in the ward... and the Garda in Mountjoy station was about as useful as a condom with air vents.... disinterested dot com so in town, in the park, wherever unless I have a good field of vision and fûck all people near me unless I’m quickly just whatsapping it’s in my pocket and zipped.

A friend of mine had his expensive sunglasses whipped off his head in Dublin by a young scumbag on a bicycle.

Applying common sense and spending a grand on a telephone don't necessarily go hand in hand..

How on earth did we manage before Google Earth and magnetometers ?

Good friends with a stock manager at a major mobile telco and this came up in conversation a while back. As far as he's concerned its not a thing anymore. Theres tons of scams out there but just mugging phones isn't really a big one. Leaving it unattended in a bar or whatnot yea, it may get nicked but actual mugging or snatching.. Not a big concern.

Yeah urban myth

Because if someone steals a phone they can put it online (adverts, donedeal etc) for sale without a charger. They don't have the charger.

Look I get what you are saying. Someone might be selling an old phone etc. But hence the phrase alarm bell. To be suspicious. To be wary. Is this genuine or is this a stolen phone.

I came across this article https://www.thejournal.ie/stolen-phones-ireland-5193112-Sep2020/

It says since the start of 2019, there has been a reported 11,488 phones stolen with an average of 10% of people luckily enough to get them back. So out of the remaining 10,000 phones stolen how many do you reckon will be sold online without chargers. Hence alarm bells.