USING expensive mobile phones on Perth and Northbridge streets is making people targets for thieves preying on younger generations’ generosity with the valuable devices.
“In this recent series of offences victims are approached by young males who ask the victim to assist them making a call ,or allow them to use their phone to call someone,” Senior Sergeant Angela Tipping said.
Other requests may be for the time, but the robber eventually gets or grabs the phone and runs off.
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READ NOW“We want young people to realise they are giving over to someone else something which is worth $700 to $1000, when you would hand that amount of cash to someone you did not know,” Sergeant Warren Ameduri said.
There were at least four thefts of mobile phones from street users on April 2 in Perth.
About 5.30pm that day, a slim, dark-skinned man m aged 18 to 20 in a white t-shirt and grey training pants took a phone from a woman in Roe Street, Perth and another woman was robbed of her phone on the street about 30 minutes later.
About 4pm, a phone was taken from a woman in Russell Square, Northbridge.
It is alleged a Nollamara girl (16), who was accompanied by a man, stole a mobile phone about 6pm at the Perth Cultural Centre in Northbridge.
The girl was charged with stealing and will appear at Perth Children’s Court at a later date.