Phone Theft at Music Festivals Is a Big Problem — How to Stop It

Photograph Credit score: Mikaela Shannon

Mobile phone theft stays a critical problem at songs festivals.

As new music festivals return in a huge way in 2022, with droves of attendees keen to be out and about, cellphone theft has also remained a major situation at these events. With phones costing $1000 and virtually every competition goer carrying a person, it is like capturing fish in a barrel for intruders.

A lot of persons might think they’ll be vigilant adequate to secure themselves from theft and that even if their cell phone acquired stolen, it would be useless without their passcode or fingerprint. Less persons passcode shield their phones than you could count on, and vigilance is challenging to retain as soon as the alcohol commences to movement. 

Some thieves make it out of tunes festivals with in excess of a hundred stolen phones lots of of these are then moved internationally to be bought as sections or employed off-community, so regardless of whether they are passcode shielded or not quickly gets irrelevant. Pageant goers have claimed that practiced telephone burglars will even test to fraud their marks out of their password or supplemental data immediately after thieving their cellphone.

Even maintaining your cellphone in hand the entire time you are out can direct to another person knocking it out of your hand — purposely or unintentionally — and an individual grabbing it although it is on the ground. Retaining your telephone in your bag is a different resolution intruders bypass by slashing the bag whilst you’re distracted and getting whichever falls out.

Even though no option is foolproof, there are quite a few measures you can take to make yourself a less desirable target to potential cellphone intruders. Holding your phone out of your pocket or effortless-to-attain bag, this kind of as trying to keep it in your automobile or a locker, and carrying much less stuff can go a very long way toward protecting by yourself and your belongings. Looking at your liquor intake and other vices whilst at a competition can aid you manage a watchful eye, so burglars are less apt to acquire benefit of you.

If you need to have to continue to keep your cellphone on you, investing in a telephone or wallet leash can assistance guarantee that pickpocketing tries from you are unsuccessful. Set up Uncover My (Apple) or Locate My Unit (Google) beforehand so you can simply track it if your machine does get stolen. Never give out any passwords, and back again up photos and other details from your mobile phone to the cloud just in circumstance.

Some events and venues have lockers to secure valuables, but numerous will stress that they are not held responsible for lost or stolen valuables. Nevertheless, calling the competition organizer or location to request about what methods they are using to support minimize property theft can support increase awareness of the issue’s prevalence. Even though tunes lovers return to often attending dwell functions, it’s significant to remember that personal basic safety really should normally keep on being a precedence.