Pay attention BART riders. Your cellphone may be tempting to stare at as you ride off to work or the City. But it's best to put your phone down, and be aware of your surroundings, BART officials are warning.
In the month of August alone, there have been 13 cases of stolen cell phones, three of which happened this past week in Oakland and San Francisco stations, BART officials said on Friday.
And a lot of those thefts could be prevented if cell phone users were simply on alert, and off their phones.
“When you’re standing next to a train door or if you’re on the platform and right next to the stairs or escalator, you are sometimes becoming a target unfortunately,” said Alicia Trost, a BART spokesperson.
According to the East Bay Times, a majority of the cases occurred between Aug. 11 and 24, involving iPhones. The 13 incidents took place at nine different stations in San Francisco and Oakland where at least ten of those thefts happened while victims were on the train, the newspaper reported.
BART is also taking to Twitter this week to share tips on crime prevention while riding. BART not taking the cases lightly, and is encouraging all riders to pay more attention to their surroundings and report thefts immediately to the police.
