An Australian model has been left constantly looking over her shoulder after her phone was snatched in London for the second time in three months.
CCTV footage appears to capture the moment a young man wearing a face mask snuck up behind Emma Van Der Hoek and ripped her phone from her hand before sprinting away.
The model said the ordeal took place in broad daylight on Tuesday while she was walking alone on the pavement in Highbury.
Dramatic CCTV footage filmed on the corner of Sotheby Road and Highbury Park shows the influencer looking down at her phone as she walks along, before the thief strikes.
Ms Van Der Hoek can be seen trying to chase after the culprit but he makes a speedy getaway.
A second man also dressed in black appears to follow the suspect as they sprint out of view.
Taking to social media, the model described how it was “emotionally exhausting” having her phone taken again in London.
She wrote on her Instagram story: “Yesterday my phone got stolen in London (again). This is the second time in just three months. Both times, in what’s supposed to be a ‘safe’ neighbourhood.
“It’s reached a point where I can’t even walk two minutes down the street without looking over my shoulder.”
The moment has gone viral online and has been viewed by nearly 500,000 people on TikTok.
Ms Van Der Hoek described how it was “actually insane” how many people had left victim-blaming comments beneath the footage of the theft.
She added: “If you think this is my fault, you seriously need to go to therapy.”
In a separate Instagram post she wrote: “People have gotten so used to theft in London that they’ve started blaming the victims instead of holding criminals accountable.
“If you are one of the boys that stole my phone, return it and I’ll delete the video.”
The Standard revealed earlier this year that a phone is stolen in London every seven-and-a-half minutes, with as many as 192 nicked a day.
Phone thefts are now a £50million underworld industry, with most flogged or disassembled for parts in China, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The number of phones being stolen has also skyrocketed in the past five years.
In 2020, only 20,000 phones were reported stolen in London while in 2024 criminals took 70,137 devices.
Criminals appear to have also begun to increasingly use mopeds and electric bikes to grab devices from their owners’ hands and quickly speed away from the scene.
Last year a prolific phone snatcher was jailed after he stole as many as 24 phones in a single morning.
