Moment police discover 500 ‘stolen’ cell phones hidden behind padlocked door after raid at north London comfort retailer
Video shows the moment police officers found more than 500 ‘stolen’ mobile phones behind a padlocked door during a raid at a convenience store in north-west London.
Four men, aged 22, 25, 34 and 63, have been arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods, as well as possession of drugs and intent to supply, following the bust at a shop on Kilburn High Road.
Footage released by police shows a group of officers entering the store, appearing to run past customers as they head towards a locked door at the back.
They use a large tool to snap a padlock on the door before entering a dark room, where they find shelves filled with mobile phones stacked on top of each other, as well as some iPhone packaging.
‘That’s loads of phones in here,’ one officer says.
The raid was carried out amid police action in Brent aimed at tackling theft, robbery and e-bike related crime.
The shop was subject to a warrant after intelligence suggested the venue was being used to supply class B drugs, the Metropolitan Police said.
Three of the suspects arrested have been released on bail, while one was released under investigation.
Footage released by police shows shelves of ‘stolen’ mobile phones at a convenience store in north-west London
The phones were discovered behind a padlocked door towards the back of the shop during a raid by police
Earlier this year, the Met seized 770 stolen phones and made 248 arrests during four weeks of action across London.
Inspector Yu Zhang, from the Met’s local policing team in Brent, said: ‘We understand mobile phone theft remains a major concern for Londoners and that’s why we have worked hard to drive down offending.
‘Seizures such as this show that we are not only targeting individual phone snatchers, but also those who handle and profit from stolen devices.
‘Londoners deserve to feel safe and we are committed to relentlessly disrupting the organised criminal networks fuelling this crime.’
Tens of thousands of mobile phones were stolen in London last year – equivalent to one taken every nine minutes, it was reported last month.
Some 61,331 devices were snatched throughout 2025 – equivalent to 1,179 a week or 168 a day, according to analysis of the Met’s crime dashboard data.
The force launched a huge fightback against the crime – and last year marked the first fall in phone thefts since it launched its dashboard data in February 2022.
As well as phones, some iPhone boxes were also discovered sitting on the shelves
Phones are seen stacked on top of each other inside a dark room at the shop
The convenience store is located on Kilburn High Road, north-west London
More than 224,000 phones have been reported stolen in London over the past four years, but the total will likely be higher given not all phone thefts are reported.
Nearly a third of phone thefts in London were in Westminster last year with 18,932 taken – followed by 5,543 in Camden, 5,276 in Southwark and 3,977 in Hackney.
The other boroughs in the capital completing the top ten in 2025 were Newham (2,990), Islington (2,737), Tower Hamlets (1,921), Haringey (1,704) and Brent (1,531).
Sutton and Richmond-upon-Thames recorded the lowest levels of the crime at 88 and 106 respectively, followed by Bexley on 107, Merton on 138 and Havering on 198.
