MANHATTAN — Apple fans aren't the only ones who eagerly await the company's new releases — thieves can barely wait either.
Since 2010's release of the popular iPhone 4 in 2010, thefts on the subway have skyrocketed, according to an NYPD transit chief.
NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Fox told an MTA transit committee meeting that phone thefts "accelerated" as soon as the smartphone debuted in July 2010, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Unlike a Morningside Heights mugger last year who turned down BlackBerries, the subway thiefs aren't ignoring Droids, tablets and e-readers. In 2011, 47 percent of subway thefts were of electronics, compared with 39 percent in 2010.
In an effort to fight back, the NYPD added more than 200 officers to its underground patrol in January, and gave an additional 320 cops the go-ahead for four hours of overtime, Gothamist reported.
Employing a small army of decoys posing as straphangers, police have managed to catch scores of would-be tech thieves in the act. Police said they have doubled the number of officers trained for decoy operations in response to the spike in thefts.
As of Feb 15, transit police had nabbed 109 robbers in 2012, up from 95 this time last year, the New York Daily News reported. Fare beating arrests were also up 23 percent, the paper reported.
Still, Fox was quick to point out that, even with so many pricey temptations, crime in the subway is hardly what it used to be. In 1990, straphangers suffered through an average of 47 felonies a day. In 2011, it was six, he said.
