A University of Wisconsin student was the latest victim in a string of smart phone thefts in the downtown area when she was robbed near campus on Tuesday.
A female student was walking home on the 100 block of North Bassett Street at 10:43 p.m. when she was approached by two young African-American males between the ages of 16 and 19, according to a Madison Police Department statement. The suspects yelled at the victim and pushed her before stealing the iPhone she was carrying, the statement said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the robbery is an all too common occurrence for the campus area. Similar incidents occurred over the summer both downtown and in the area south of Park Street during both the daytime and evening hours, he said.
The theft is the most recent example of what people are referring to as “apple picking” on campus, which Verveer described as the trend of thieves targeting smart phones and iPhones because they are “easy pickings.”
“Police tell me smart phones are a huge target for thieves, [and] these crooks are getting a couple hundred dollars for these phones in the resell market,” Verveer said. “It is very easy to sell these on the market, no questions asked.”
Smart phones can also be a distraction for people because they are focused more on their phone and less on what is going on around them, Verveer said. This makes it easier for thieves to catch victims off guard and steal their phones, he said.
In Tuesday’s incident, the victim was using her iPhone and had her earphones in at the time of the incident, Verveer said. This likely contributed to her being the target for the incident, he said. To prevent future incidents, students should pay attention to what is going on around them, Verveer added.
“Situational awareness is the key most of the time,” Verveer said. “Many times we are preoccupied with our phones and aren’t aware of our surroundings.”
The downtown area also saw another violent incident on Tuesday evening after a Madison man, 22, was attacked at a bus stop downtown after two men overheard him talking on his cellphone in his native African language.
The victim was sitting inside a bus stop near the intersection of State Street and Fairchild Street at 11:21 p.m. when he was approached by the two suspects, a MPD statement said. According to the victim, the two men requested he stop talking in the language and one punched him in the face.
Verveer said the incident report from MPD indicated the battery was likely a hate crime and an isolated incident. According to the statement, one of the suspects was reported saying, “We did work tonight. We did white boy work tonight.”
The victim was not injured in the incident and police managed to catch the suspects on the 400 block of Mifflin Street, the statement said.
