Jeff Chiu/Associated Press Hold onto your iPhones!
Crime in New York City inched up this year, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday fingered the culprit: too many iPhones and iPads were being swiped.
A rise in thefts of shiny Apple products accounted for the slight increase in the city's annual crime index, a statistic that includes major felonies including murder, grand larceny and robbery, Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday morning during his weekly radio show.
As of Monday, the Police Department recorded 3,484 more crimes in 2012 than for the same period last year. The increase in Apple product thefts: 3,890.
A full breakdown of the year's crime statistics was not immediately available, but city officials were quick to focus on the Apple figure.
“If you just took away the jump in Apple, we'd be down for the year,†said Marc La Vorgna, the mayor's press secretary.
IPhones have long proved irresistible to city thieves, particularly on the subway, where crime rates shot up in 2011 after police investigators discovered that robbers were targeting the expensive, high-tech gadgets. The Police Department has used dozens of decoy officers and unusual methods to try to stanch the thefts, which usually occurred as trains entered and left stations, allowing for a quick getaway.
“The proliferation of people carrying expensive devices around is so great,†Mr. La Vorgna said. “It's something that's never had to be dea lt with before.â€
Through Monday, the city had recorded 108,432 major crimes for the year, up from 104,948 over the same period in 2011, a rise of 3.3 percent.
