It's tough being an (iPhone) thief

In London, iPhone theft is a major problem. Thieves have such high interest in the device that they'll even return your stolen smartphone if it's not an Apple product. And when they get their hands on the precious treasure, their goal is naturally to resell it as quickly as possible, something only possible if they manage to unlock and reset it. This is happening less and less, according to London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, interviewed by the BBC. Enhanced security with iOS 26.4: Apple deserves the credit for this, thanks to the Device Theft Protection feature introduced in 2023 and activated by default recently – March 2026 – via the iOS 26.4 update. This feature makes accessing iPhone data more difficult, particularly through biometric authentication and timeouts for certain actions, giving the owner more time to remotely mark their device as "stolen" via the Find My feature. Even with the passcode, the thief can no longer reset the iPhone, rendering it unsaleable. Police report that "the vast majority of iPhones" stolen in recent weeks have not been reset. It's tough being an iPhone thief, then, and will likely be even tougher in the coming years with this new anti-theft feature Apple is preparing.