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What → send → correspondents
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newsletter → sign → inbox
The conditions look perfect when I walk up from the underground to search for London crime.
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I → look → crime
The footpaths around the Bond Street tube station are jammed with shoppers heading to the big department stores nearby, while tourists linger at the souvenir stores.
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tourists → jam → stores
I can see why this neighbourhood is known for mobile phone theft.
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neighbourhood → see → theft
Some pedestrians are glancing at their screens as they walk, and some stop to take selfies along Oxford Street, holding their phones out near the kerb.
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some → glance → kerb
That seems risky in a city with almost 200 cases of phone theft and robbery each day.
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That → seem → theft
But I’m searching for the scene of an older crime.
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I → search → crime
I find it when I get to the corner of Oxford Street and Gee’s Court, a tiny passageway leading to a pedestrian mall.
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I → find → mall
Here, two centuries ago, an ancestor of mine took up a common trade on these streets.
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ancestor → take → streets
He snatched and ran.
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He → snatch → ?
Together, they found a target on Oxford Street in the winter of 1818.
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they → find → 1818
England was at peace after defeating Napoleon, but London was ravaged by crushing poverty – and a small square of silk could be worth about two days’ wages.
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square → defeat → silk
The target, George Reid, did not even notice the younger thief steal his handkerchief.
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thief → notice → handkerchief
But a worker nearby saw exactly what happened: the boy took the silk and passed it quickly to Daley, who slipped it into his hat and walked on in the hope of a swift getaway along Oxford Street.
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who → see → Street
That walk turned into a run, however, when Reid called for help.
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Reid → turn → help
“Stop, thief!” he yelled.
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he → stop → ?
Daley ran from Oxford Street towards Marylebone Lane, a curved street of stores and pubs.
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Daley → run → stores
A policeman then made an arrest that changed history – at least in my family.
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that → make → family
“I heard the alarm, and saw the prisoner running up Marylebone Lane,” the constable told a court a few weeks later.
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constable → hear → court
“He was stopped, and the handkerchief fell out of his hat.”
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handkerchief → stop → hat
We know this because the Old Bailey, in a testament to British justice, kept the transcript from Daley’s appearance in court.
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Bailey → know → court
Daley was on a ship to the colonies in July, and he arrived in Sydney on New Year’s Eve.
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he → arrive → Eve
He may not have felt like celebrating.
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He → feel → ?
It seems like a story from Charles Dickens, although Oliver Twist did not appear until 20 years later.
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Twist → seem → Dickens
In that tale, the hero is found to be of high birth and inherits a fortune, but there was no secret family wealth for Daley.
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hero → find → Daley
He was sent to work on the farms west of Sydney as a convict labourer before eventually gaining his ticket of leave.
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He → send → leave
At least things did not end badly: he married, became a farmer and died at 70 near Windsor.
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he → end → Windsor
I think about that life-changing punishment as I walk down Marylebone Lane.
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I → think → Lane
Some of the shop workers around here tell me they rarely see a thief being caught.
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thief → tell → me
One of the bar staff at the Spread Eagle, a nearby pub, says she sees a phone being stolen on most nights when she finishes her shift.
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she → say → shift
A thief will speed past on an electric scooter or bike, snatch a phone and race away.
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thief → speed → phone
The Metropolitan Police release videos showing brazen thefts in busy areas like Oxford Street, but they say they are cracking down.
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they → release → Street
“Phone theft and robbery fell from 81,439 offences in 2024 to 71,867 in 2025,” they say.
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they → fall → 2025
It looks like falling again this year, judging by the tally to August.
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It → look → August
This seems to add to the progress we reported last year.
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we → seem → progress
In one celebrated case, the victim of a phone theft helped guide police to a warehouse at Heathrow Airport using a “find my phone” feature.
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victim → guide → feature
Remarkably, the phone was left on, and the location signal was still working, so police were able to arrest a gang responsible for shipping around 40,000 phones to China.
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police → leave → China
The three men were sentenced last month to prison terms of up to nine years.
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men → sentence → years
While the official numbers say things are getting better, it is hard to be sure.
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it → say → ?
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
