Towson Crime: Police Investigate iPhone Thefts

If you're reading this article on your iPhone, you may want to look around a little more.

Two iPhones were stolen within minutes of each other on Monday in central Towson, according to police reports.

The first incident was at 4:25 p.m. on July 31 at the station in the 800 block of York Road. A woman was in line to make a purchase when a man snuck up and grabbed her iPhone from her left hand. He and an accomplice then fled south on York Road, according to police.

At 4:50 p.m. that same day, a man and woman were on the steps outside the Dulaney Valley Road entrance to , near . There, the victims told police, they were approached by four men. One grabbed the iPhone from out of the man's hands and another struggled with the woman over her purse. The men fled south on Dulaney Valley Road with the phone and purse, according to the police report.

Police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathleen Batton said the two reports are not related.

"There is no connection between the two," she said. "They remain under investigation."

On July 14, out of a man's hands and fled from the Starbucks at York Road and Burke Avenue.

Batton said people who own smartphones or similar devices should try to be more aware of their surroundings.

"We see a tendency that when people are using these devices that they are paying more attention to the device rather than what's going on around them," she said.

She advised residents to look out for suspicious individuals and to keep valuables like electronics on you or otherwise secured when you're out and about.

"Make sure that you have those secured so that [you're] holding on to them not setting them down on chairs and walking away from them while you go to get your coffee," she said.