Because the police don't care, and these crimes are generally impossible to solve.
There are stories of people finding their stolen bicycles, motorbikes or cars, and when informing the police they're told to 'steal it back'.
The phones thieves are generally youths riding around the city on electric bikes, fully balaclava'd up. There's little chance of catching them. Even if they were caught nothing would happen to them.
London has apparently gone to shit since I lived there 5 years ago.
> Because the police don't care, and these crimes are generally impossible to solve.
Because they don't care is correct. These crimes are actually trivial to solve. The devices are tracked, there is a clear money trail, people are doing this routinely as a business.
As you said people routinely track their stolen property and nothing is done about it.
They don't care because it's "petty" crime. And they will "get to it after they solve all the murders."
Yes. The police have the ability to find and arrest the perpetrators pretty quickly, if they prioritise it. There was a phone theft which (unusually) turned into a stabbing/slashing a couple of years ago when the victim fought back. Perpetrators escaped on bikes before police arrived, but were arrested only 3 or 4 days later.
There are stories of people finding their stolen bicycles, motorbikes or cars, and when informing the police they're told to 'steal it back'.
The phones thieves are generally youths riding around the city on electric bikes, fully balaclava'd up. There's little chance of catching them. Even if they were caught nothing would happen to them.
London has apparently gone to shit since I lived there 5 years ago.