Walking with expensive phones in Dublin

maeve99

Is it safe? Given the stories you hear about random people being beaten and attacked, I was wondering how safe it is to carry an expensive smartphone with you while walking through Dublin streets. My friend just got a Galaxy S21 which was €1,300. Nice phone but told him it's absolutely stupid to walk around with it given how many junkies are looking for the next thing to sell.

I remember losing a cheap €50 smartphone once on the Dublin Bus and it was returned. I'm not sure if my friend who be as lucky to have it returned to lost and found with his current phone but maybe I'm wrong.

Kermit.de.frog

Doesn't have to be junkies. Why would you be walking around any city with such an expensive phone to your ear? Seems a pretty stupid thing to do.

Beechwoodspark

theres People walking around dub who would “steal the sight out of yer eye” as the late and great much missed G Ryan of RTÉ would say ...

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896077#Comment_117896077

Makes me wonder why anyone would pay so much for a phone, which can be easily lost (more likely for me!) or stolen.

Would insurance cover a theft scenario?

85603

well if he spent 1300 on it then he wants people to see his wonderfully expensive phone. so he'll probably be walking the length and breadth of every street making as many calls as possible. And in doing so he will not be safe. no.

unless he's a big bastard. maybe.

dotsman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896077#Comment_117896077

What's the point of having a phone, expensive or not, if you can't have it to your ear while on the go? If it is only cheap phones that should be used for "out and about", then what's the point of an expensive one?

Atlantic Dawn

Not safe anywhere in the city to use openly, day or night. Walk in to a shop if you need to use it.

Years ago before everyone had a mobile, my friend used to get the dart into work, and there was a guy she'd see often on it playing with his mobile texting or making calls on it. One day there was a medical emergency on the dart and they needed to ring for an ambulance. Turns out - it was a fake phone. It didn't work. It could have been like the phone Dougal bought on the Fr Ted episode Flight into Terror.

Long story short, there are some sad, pathetic losers out there. Some who want to be seen walking down grafton street with their new Samsung Z flip phone.

Tork

Is this a new twist on the old "Dublin is a sh*thole" trope?

xper

What stories do you hear OP? Thousands of people walk around Dublin streets with expensive phones each day and have done for years. Very few of them have ever been mugged. You're far more likely to damage or lose such a device through your own neglect and, if thats a concern, thats what insurance is for, as well as theft.

Perhaps dont go playing Angry Birds down an alley way off Abbey Street.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896156#Comment_117896156

I’ve often used my phone while out an about with no problem. Sometimes I wonder if it’s an alternate Dublin I live in. Genuinely don’t recognise this City that you daren’t walk around. Not saying there aren’t issues, but I find it’s often way overstated on here.

Why are people so concerned with other people's lives? The world would be a better place if people just minded their own business..

D3V!L

Sure whats the point in having an expensive phone if no one can see it. I have a fairly decent Samsung, it stays in my pocket and if i need to have a phone call 🙄 then I use my earphones.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896211#Comment_117896211

Ah, but then we wouldn't have boards 😂

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896172#Comment_117896172

I work with someone similar. Always has the latest phone, makes sure everyone knows, flaunts it almost.

During a fire drill it Turns out their phone is a cheap Asian knockoff “shell” with no internal chips etc. No battery even. Got for a few yoyos on Ali express - customs don’t bother caring as it’s basically plastic and cheap glass

apparently a big thing among youth, you buy the shell version to appear to have the latest and considered a Billy big balls in the locality

Strumms

If I’d that phone I’d use it in public no problem but with a cover / case so that it would appear as just any generic mobile...

mistress_gi

I have a real story for you all!

I had a samsung s something in 2013 if i remember correctly. Was waiting for the bus in Dame street, and i was watching a move on my phone, from the corner of my eye i see a lad, i was taking my headphones off when he yanked the phone from my hands and bolted.

I don't know how but i ran after him (slowly because I'm a big girl) while screaming " stop that guy, he stole my phone" at the top of my lungs.

I stopped because i could never catch up and started crying (to this day i don't know why, it was just a phone at the end of the day)...

I called into a shop and begged them to let them use their phone and i called my then partner and he said forget it, just come home. I refused and was waiting on the guards (i think i called them too, it's a bit fuzzy at this stage).

I was waiting when a guy came back and told be he had chased the robber accross the river and he pointed them out to the guards, he told me to wait for the guards.

Guards came he took me to the station and i got my phone back.

On the way to the station the guard was giving me this lesson of how dangerous it is to have nice things out in public. I pointed out that i had bought that lhone and i wasn't the problem...

To this day i wish i got the name of the lad that gave chase i would have at least bought him a drink.

So yeah, in a couple of hours i saw some of the worst and best that Dublin had to offer 😁

ghoulfinger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896252#Comment_117896252

Sorry that this happened you, I was once pulled to the ground crossing the road in Dublin 1, nothing of great value stolen, but it was quite a negative experience nonetheless. I’m very glad someone really did come to the rescue to restore your faith in humanity.

I’m always a bit wary about taking my phone out in Dublin and I would never take it out in certain parts except to call emergency services and even then I would endeavour be as subtle as possible about it. It’s an up-to-date iPhone I have for its functionality, and certainly isn’t a stand-out item in appearance, and I keep it insured and tracked.

Contrary to some opinions expressed here, I would be minded that some parts of Dublin are definite no-go areas, or almost so, and increasingly have observed that an anti-social element has asserted itself. I’m a Dub born and bred.

L1011

Before IMEI blocking (and Apple's activation blocking) and phones generally having passcodes, a lot of phones were stolen by thieves on bikes - ring foreign premium rate numbers that they eventually get a kickback from and sell the phone.

Really died off quite quickly with blocking. Even expensive parts from stolen phones have their own serials blacklisted so they can't be sold to dodgy repair shops.

Parachutes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896156#Comment_117896156

It surely can’t be that bad. I’m a culchie who would only visit Dublin maybe 3 or 4 times a year but I hardly felt I couldn’t take my phone out of my pocket. There’s a difference from being street smart and simply being in fear.

Riesen_Meal

I have never had an issue walking around Dublin city centre with my usually expensive phone out, yet if I was in a city I didn't know really I would keep it out of sight I suppose...

Man Vs ManUre

The new iPhone 13 pro max with 1TB storage will cost you €1859, and if you choose apple care that will come to over €2K. You don’t wanna lose this one!!

Johnlynch1970

Like anything you need to be cafreful and vigilent

ZX7R

I wouldn't even know the difference between a €2000 Phone or a €200 Phone.

I'm probably in the minority.

dotsman

Have lived and worked in Dublin city center for 15 years. Have no problem using phone in public. Obviously, normal street smarts apply. It's a pretty low risk activity. In all my time, I only know of 1 person who had a phone stolen (about a decade ago, a female friend had the phone whipped out of her hand by a scummer on a bike on Baggot street during evening rush hour) and that's it.

Clareman

No-one bothers stealing a phone now cause the market for stolen phones has disappeared since IMEI blocking became a thing.

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896144#Comment_117896144

It's just about applying common sense. You are more like to miss €1,000+ phone than a €200 one.

Go indoors briefly if you desperately need to use it. There are plenty of places more than likely you'd be fine outdoors using it.

But you wouldn't be walking around with +€1,000 phone to your ear on Talbot Street or Abbey Street for example. You'd instinctively know that wasn't the brightest thing to do presumably.

20/20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896128#Comment_117896128

I thought he was a drug abuser, a very well paid one.

And I am not sure about him been great or much missed.

ghoulfinger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896600#Comment_117896600

There still would be a small “market”. Scum who might try to flog it online to the reedy gullible who think they’ve got a bargain. You hear callers to Liveline claiming how they’ve been scammed in similar type fashion.

ghoulfinger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896616#Comment_117896616

I try to avoid likes of Talbot Street full stop.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117896857#Comment_117896857

The supply of phones for those scams these days are ones reported stolen (but never were) to insurers and also phones bought on contract and defaulted on. Much easier than trying to mug someone - plenty of people with fancy phones are also going to have fancy gym membership and possibly a fancy drug problem and might be able to beat the shite out of you.

Might still happen the old fashioned way but it is basically unheard of now.