There was a spate of cellphone thefts at this year's Outside Lands, as there probably have been at multiple years' editions of the festival. But maybe the SFPD will investigate this time as it looks like an organized crime ring.
"It really just happened so fast," said a festival attendee named Krystal who had her phone stolen, speaking to KRON4. "I was moving from one set to the next. It was crowded. I had my phone before we started moving, and when we got to the next stage, my phone was suddenly gone."
Krystaln (or someone with a similar experience) posted to Reddit about the phone theft after she tracked the phone, using the Find My app, to the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. And the Reddit post garnered about a dozen responses from others who had similar experiences.
Krystal's phone appeared to end up in a parking garage on 6th Street in LA, and she contacted the local police precinct who said they went to that location but could not locate the phone.
"Trying to get some security footage now for the garage it seems to be parked at. Anyone else?" she wrote on Reddit.
The phenomenon of phones being pickpocketed at crowded music festivals is nothing new but it may be trending upward. This post on the EDM subreddit from five months ago laments that cellphone thefts are seeming "all too common" at festivals, which led to a string of responses about strategies for securing phones in zippered pouches, fanny packs, etc.
"It was in my pocket, I believe, so it was pretty close to my body, just in my front vest pocket, so even that was enough for this person, whoever took it, to just snatch it right out of there," Krystal tells KRON4.
Krystal filed a police report with the SFPD, and she says, "I really hope the police can really do some investigating and figure out who was behind this and prevent these types of crimes from happening."
Another festival-goer named Annie described losing her phone Friday night to the Chronicle, saying that it disappeared while she was in the massive crowd leaving the festival following Charli xcx's set.
"I know it’s hard to do anything if it’s just one person getting their phone stolen — it’s definitely not an emergency type of case — but I feel like if a lot of people are getting their phones stolen, it just seems to be this bigger problem," Annie tells the Chronicle.
Others who had their phones stolen described watching them move on the Find My app first to locations in the Outer Sunset or Daly City, and then further as if they were being driven south to Los Angeles.
The SFPD has not confirmed how many police reports were filed about stolen phones at this year's festival.
Previously: How Was the Pre- and Post-Outside Lands Muni Experience? Fair, But Often Frustrating
Photo by Ashkan Farouzani
