iPhone robberies have dropped dramatically in London after Apple implemented new security features.
The New York Times reports that the precipitous falls have been mirrored in New York and San Francisco.
Eric T Schneiderman, attorney general of New York, said that the fall was down to the "kill switch" Apple implemented in its latest major operating system, iOS 7, by which phones cannot be reset or restored without the password originally used to set it up.
In London alone iPhone robberies have fallen 24% in the last six months compared to the six months before the feature was implemented.
The fall outpaces other falling rates of crime.
In New York the figure was down 29%, and in San Francisco it's 38%.
The report adds that law enforcement have also worked to reduce iPhone thefts in other ways, including greater crackdowns on resellers.
But it's still a pretty good indication that thieves are at least as tech-savvy as their victims, and increasingly know when they're beaten.