It wasn’t just techie nerds who were eagerly awaiting the iPhone 4’s release — sneaky cellphone subway thieves were just as anxious to snag the gadget, NYPD officials said yesterday.
The June 2010 release of the iPhone sparked an underground cellphone-swiping frenzy that still hasn’t stopped, said NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Fox.
Cellphone “thefts accelerated in July 2010 coinciding with the release of the pretty popular iPhone 4,” he said at the MTA’s transit committee meeting.
In 2011, 47 percent of all property stolen underground involved electronics — up from 39 percent in 2010 and 35 percent in 2009.
Although subway crime overall remains low compared with decades past — averaging six major felonies a day in 2011 versus 18 in 1997 — officials are scrambling to quash the recent surge in thefts.
The NYPD boosted overtime, giving 320 cops four-hour shift extensions to patrol high-crime platforms.
In addition, the department added more than 200 cops to its Transit Bureau in the beginning of the year.
That infusion boosted the number of both uniformed and undercover officers.
“We’re hoping more individuals snatching cellphones take a moment to think if that person on the train next to them is a decoy officer who is part of a decoy team,” Fox said.
“Decoy teams are highly effective.”
One decoy team on the 7 train recently caught a pair of career criminals. Both of the busted thieves had razor blades — often used by crooks to cut a phone or wallet out of a mark’s pants.
The added police presence appears to be working.
Arrests are up in the first six weeks of 2012, including a 28 percent increase in grand-larceny busts, which includes cellphone thefts.
The increase is particularly impressive considering how difficult it is to catch phone thieves.
One popular method of stealing involves ripping a phone out of a straphanger’s hand and exiting the train just as it leaves the station, Fox said.
“There go the witnesses, and there goes the crime scene,” Fox explained.
The surge in underground officers has also resulted in a 23 percent jump in fare-beating busts and a 14 percent hike in robbery arrests.