It never feels good when your personal items are stolen. It makes one feel almost violated. As a person with a problem theft addiction I stole from many people. I too have felt the pangs of having my goods stolen. It is a feeling of being totally violated.

Using public transportation has never been less safe. Passengers on Boston, Massachusetts’ public transportation system and society in general experienced a 26% increase in theft.

A rash of smartphone, bicycle, and catalytic-converter thefts spurred a 26 percent increase in property crimes.

On the city’s public transportation thieves are swiping visible and valuable iPhones from riders’ hands, stealing bicycles locked to flimsy posts and fences, and surgically removing expensive catalytic converters from beneath cars parked in MBTA lots. That drove larcenies, which make up the bulk of property crimes, to their highest total since 2001.

Larcenies on the T increased from 571 in 2005 to 771 last year. That averages out to about 2 per day. Part of the increase can be that more people are using public transportation. The T was on pace to challenge a modern record and exceed 385 million passenger-trips for the year.

Pickpockets and iPhones

But pickpocketing, smartphone stealing, and other theft appeared to grow much faster than ridership, despite a campaign that includes recorded announcements, posters, and uniformed as well as undercover Transit Police officers reminding riders to be cautious, especially while waiting on platforms or riding near subway car doors.

Thieves were particularly intent on taking iPhones, which are roughly 30 percent of the smartphone market but accounted for about 60 percent of smartphone thefts on the T.

Another target of thieves in the T were bicycles. Bike thefts tripled since 2003 with 199 bikes being stolen.

Catalytic Converters

Cars also were the targets of thieves with 238 cars targeted. Nearly half of those were catalytic converters stolen from beneath cars, boosting a category that once consisted largely of smash-and-grab theft of navigation devices and valuables locked inside cars.

The thievery has got to stop. What is needed is more education, online theft classes, and video surveillance. Theft costs everyone.

Source: boston.com