Collin McMinn stood in a dense crowd at III Points music festival in Miami when two large men shoved through his group of friends. His iPhone 13 was gone within seconds, swiped from his pocket in the chaos.
“I hate that I’m so connected to my phone, like most of society, but that immediate anxiety and scared feeling was very prominent,” McMinn said.
Police officers stationed around the festival told McMinn that he was about the 30th person to report a stolen phone — and there was nothing they could do.
When he returned to his hotel, his fiancée received an unexpected call from the stolen phone. “Apparently some kid tackled the dude that had my phone,” McMinn said.
Jacob Jomarron had wrapped his arm around the thief’s neck, tripping the man with his foot and slamming him to the concrete. He frantically patted the pickpocket’s clothes, lifting up the thief’s shirt to reveal a bodysuit — and 25 phones, strapped to the criminal’s chest, arms and back.
The thief then vanished into the crowd, Jomarron and McMinn’s iPhones clattering on the ground as he ran.
“We waited, stayed up and (Jomarron) walked to the hotel, brought (my phone) to me,” McMinn said. “I gave him 50 bucks because he’s such a champ for that. And I made a friend out of it.”
Jomarron and McMinn’s story is just one example of a nationwide phone theft crisis that has taken hold in South Florida. Thieves are trained in elaborate pickpocketing techniques, distracting victims by shoving them or pretending to flirt with them. They grab phones from purses and pockets at nightclubs and music festivals, sending smartphones overseas to be stripped for parts, and putting the owners’ critical information at risk as they pillage financial institutions and saved passwords.
Most victims are women, tourists, or young people, groups who consistently take out their phone and are followed by pickpockets. In Fort Lauderdale, the number of phone theft reports skyrockets during Spring Break, usually between the hours of midnight to 4 a.m.
How thefts happen
Walking through a dance floor can be dangerous. While clubbers are enjoying a song and holding their hands in the air during a beat drop, thieves take advantage of the moment.
“Crowds would be an effective choice (for thieves) too; you have to be able to move through them relatively quickly and get out,” Michigan State criminal justice professor Tom Holt said. “Any kind of space where it’s dark, you’re not necessarily paying a ton of attention. You might be more inclined to put it down on a seat or a table and you take a drink.”
Some criminals may sell a phone to a local vendor, similar to jewelry being swiped and sold at a pawn shop. Other thieves are part of sophisticated groups, putting phones in airplane mode and inside electromagnetic blocking Faraday bags so the phones cannot be detected with tracking features.
“Normally it’s not one person, it’s one, two, or three people distracting and one actually handling the phone and either taking off or giving it to somebody else. Even in a nightclub there has to be somebody on watch,” said Mehran Basiratmand, director of programs and innovation at Florida Atlantic University. He previously spent 22 years as the chief technology officer for the university.
When multiple phones are reported as stolen at Club Space in Miami, security waves people with handheld metal detectors as they exit the nightclub.
“If they have multiple phones on them, we will make them unlock the phone,” former Club Space and Factory Town bouncer Zarrian White said.
Factory Town, a multi-stage music venue in Hialeah, had 18 larceny reports in 2022 but leaped to 90 reports in 2024. Despite the number of theft reports, the venue is open only a select few nights of the year for special events like New Year’s Eve.
Fort Lauderdale Police received 1,282 cellphone theft reports in 2023 and 1,050 reports in 2024. The locations with the most thefts include Dicey Riley’s Irish Pub, Sway, Munchie’s, Cafe Ibiza, and Rock Bar.
“There’s certain (phone stealing) crews. We have quite a few South American crews, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba coming up,” said Patrick O’Brien, a Fort Lauderdale sergeant in charge of larceny. “These are the groups that infiltrate Tortuga Music Festival, but they don’t just infiltrate Tortuga; they’re looking for nationwide music festivals, things like Mardi Gras, looking for large crowds that are going to be people really squeezed together.”
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