MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – There’s been a spike in the number of smartphones stolen across the country, and one of the latest thefts happened to a little boy in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis police say two young men grabbed an iPhone from a 4-year-old’s hands. He was in the hallway of an East Franklin Avenue apartment complex, and according to the police report, the boy was pushed and robbed.
A police spokesperson says this case underlines the fact that parents need to pay close attention to their children.
Mikiala Puranen says she gives her iPhone to her kids to play with while she shops for groceries. Puranen says she never thought someone would steal a smartphone from a child.
“I mean, you wouldn’t think that someone would steal it out of a kid’s hands,” she said.
A bill before Congress called the Cell Phone Theft Protection Act intends to protect consumers from cell phone theft. It would create a national blacklist across the wireless industry. That list would hold the ID numbers of stolen cell phones, and carriers would cross-reference files to be sure stolen phones couldn’t get service from another provider.
New York Rep. Eric Engler says that with service cut off, a cell phone just becomes a brick.
“The motivation to threaten or commit violence, in order to steal a phone, goes away,” he said in press release.
Nearly 70 police chiefs across the country are urging action similar to the proposed bill.
Minneapolis police usually don’t see 4-year-old children become the victims of smartphone theft. But thieves have recently targeted college students.
Police estimate that tens of thousands of smartphones are stolen each year nationally.
