Only 2% were recovered. The likelihood is that if your phone is stolen, you will never get it back. In a new development, criminals are stealing more than just the device. They are taking your money, your identity, your data, and locking you out of all of them.
Criminals observe you input your passcode and then steal your phone. Potentially, they now have access to all the phone's apps and features and plenty of time to exploit them as they lock you out of your own device.
What you might have considered a petty crime can result in serious problems. John Roch, the head of London's Met Police Economic Crime Unit describes it as small scale but with devastating consequences.
Simone de Jacopo, in an interview with BBC, thought little of his phone's theft until the following day he discovered £22,500 was stolen from his bank. Because his passcode was known to the fraudsters his bank initially refused compensation. It took him ten months to receive it and it was paid as a gesture of goodwill, rather than as a matter of policy.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Greg Fasca spent months trying to regain access to his Apple ID, including offering to fly to Apple's HQ to prove his identity and recover eight years of photos and videos of his children.