A woman has said she ‘can’t believe’ her luck after finding her stolen phone buried under a tree in a London park.
Agiimaa Oyungerel was outside a train station on Saturday in Surrey Quays when a man on a bike snatched the device from her hands.
The 35-year-old used Google’s Find My Device to track the phone to Pepys Park in Lewisham – before ‘digging through the dirt’ and finding it, along with four others.
The discovery comes amid reports of criminals hiding phones in the capital’s Phoenix Garden as well as London’s West End.
It is thought the snatchers employ the tactic to reduce the risk of being caught with a bag full of devices, and to also wait out police, who might be tracking the device, until they lose interest.
The thieves then return to dig up their ill-gotten gains, before selling them on abroad, reports claim.
Ms Oyungerel said: ‘I don’t know why the thief made such a rookie mistake.
‘Maybe he doesn’t have that much experience.
The 35-year-old (pictured) used Google’s Find My Device to track the phone to Pepys Park in Lewisham – before ‘digging through the dirt’ and finding it, along with four others
The discovery comes amid reports of criminals hiding phones in the capital’s Phoenix Garden as well as London’s West End
‘I can’t believe my luck.’
The journalist, content creator and translator had been visiting London from Mongolia to see her husband who lives in the city.
She was on her way to a car boot sale when her phone was snatched from her hand.
Ms Oyungerel said she tried to chase the offender but was ‘no match’ as he careered away on a bicycle.
A frantic search ensued before workers at the nearby HNT Pawnbrokers shop told her someone else had their phone stolen in the exact same manner just moments before.
Two hours later – after finding the location of her phone using Google’s Find My Device service – she rushed to the park.
Ms Oyungerel said: ‘I kneeled on all fours digging through dirt and leaves and branches.
‘Something hard touched my hand and I found my phone and four other phones. They were all iPhones except mine.
‘In the meantime, I called the police and told them I reported the crime two hours ago and offered them the phones.
The journalist, content creator and translator had been visiting London from Mongolia to see her husband who lives in the city. The couple are pictured here together
Ms Oyungerel said: ‘I hope the police did their job and the people got their phones back’
‘I took them to the station by myself but I was also worried that I might be targeted by the thieves.
‘I don’t feel really safe because the police didn’t take the perpetrator so he’s still in the area.
‘I don’t feel like going out on my own.’
She added: ‘I hope the police did their job and the people got their phones back.’
The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.
In October the Daily Mail revealed London’s phone theft hotspots after police busted a gang who were exporting almost half of the mobile phones stolen on Britain’s streets.
The operation was hailed by Scotland Yard’s commissioner as the ‘biggest counter-phone theft operation in the world.’
It followed data from the Metropolitan Police released in August that showed 116,000 mobile phones were stolen in London last year, or 320 every single day.
The London borough with the most phones stolen in 2024 was Westminster, with 34,039. Camden came second with 10,907, followed by Southwark with 7,316.
There were 116,656 reported mobile thefts in 2024 – the highest number on record – and more than 50 per cent higher than the total in 2017 of just over 77,000.
Last year’s total was equivalent to 13 phones being stolen every hour – and it was 1,300 incidents higher than in the previous 12 months. Despite the number of thefts, only 169 suspects were charged in the year, and seven were let off with a caution.
The figures, obtained from the Met under freedom of information laws by campaign group Crush Crime, also showed a further 8,588 handset thefts in January this year.
Some 61,000 of victims were female and just under 48,000 were male, with the rest not recorded.
From 2017 to 2024 the total number of mobile phones reported stolen was almost 684,000 – and they were estimated to have a value of £365million.
