Khalid Mohamed was on a deserted downtown subway platform around 10 at night when a man approached him with a knife and said “gimme your phone.”

The Grade 12 student at William Lyon McKenzie says he didn’t hesitate.

Mohamed handed over the year-old smartphone, purchased with money he’d saved from his part-time job, to his assailant, who then pushed him to the ground and took off at a run.

The teen chased him but gave up after watching the man jump a turnstile at the St. Patrick Station, at University Ave. and Dundas St., and disappear.

Unfortunately, Mohamed’s story isn’t unique.

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A Star investigation has found more than 30,000 cellphones have been reported stolen to Toronto police over a 10-year period, during which time the total number stolen increased nearly 400 per cent.

Thefts went from 840 in 2004 to 3,190 in 2013 as of Sept. 24, the latest data available from police. Robberies, which are thefts with violence, went from 338 to 1,257 during the same time period.

Police say the likely targets are teenagers, often as young as 13.

Mohamed says he knows at least 10 other kids at his northwest Toronto school who’ve been victims of the crime.

Nearly a fifth of all thefts and robberies have been in the city’s core. Police say that’s due to the high volume of people coming downtown for work, or to restaurants and nightclubs where the thefts can occur.

That high-theft area runs from Spadina Ave. east to Yonge St., and south from Bloor St. to the waterfront, and includes five of the city’s 144 neighbourhoods: University, Chinatown-Kensington, the Waterfront Communities and the Island, and the Yonge-Church and Bay Street corridors.

Nearly a third of all phones are taken during robberies, which have been called an “emerging violent crime,” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

Blair, along with York South-Weston MP Mike Sullivan and the Toronto Police Services Board, pushed for the creation of a national registry of stolen phones.

In September the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association launched protectyourdata.ca. The blacklist, similar to a database launched in the U.S., is a registry of the International Mobile Equipment Identity number on phones reported stolen by individuals to their wireless providers.

Carriers in Canada have agreed to cut off service to phones on the list and not reactivate it.

The telecommunications association says the blacklist is working and that the site, which allows a user to check the IMEI of a phone against those on the blacklist, processed 24,000 enquiries within a month of its launch.

But neither the association nor wireless carriers such as Bell will reveal how many numbers have been placed on the list.

Police say it’s too early to know if the blacklist has been successful in deterring the crime in Toronto, where thefts and robberies were on the upswing in 2012, despite the number of stolen phones going down nationwide.

That year, more than 1,800 robberies involving cellphones and other hand-held electronics were reported to Toronto police, as well as 3,811 thefts. In 2013, there were 1,257 robberies and 3,190 thefts, figures which are incomplete because the data from police only goes to the end of September, when the blacklist began.

“There has been a drop, yes, but that’s traditional for this time of year. I’d say wait to April, May or June,” says Det. Sgt. Colin Greenaway, head of the criminal investigation bureau in 12 Division, which runs south from Hwy. 401 to St. Clair Ave. W., and east from the Humber River to Keele St.

The division experienced a rash of robberies of high school students in 2012, including one where a victim was shot in the face with a BB gun.

“Let’s see in another two months when the weather gets warmer,” says Greenaway.

Police in 52 Division, which encompasses most of the downtown neighbourhoods where the thefts are common, have also failed to see the numbers go down.

“I haven’t seen a decrease in cellphone theft in my pile there,” says Det. Jason Shankaran, referring to the paperwork on his desk.

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Blair has been an advocate for the national blacklist, but he has also called on manufacturers to install technology, called a “kill switch,” that can permanently disable stolen phones without having to rely on carriers.

Legislators in San Francisco, concerned about violent robberies involving knives and guns, introduced legislation earlier this month that requires smartphone and tablet manufacturers to include the “kill switch” in any device sold in California after Jan. 1, 2015.

The country’s “national blacklist is not working,” explains Democratic state Senator Mark Leno. “My understanding is that these devices are quickly shipped overseas and the national registry does not impact that phenomenon.”

“This is clearly a crime of convenience and if we end the convenience, we’ll end the crime,” adds Leno. “There has literally been a market shift in criminal behaviour since the proliferation of mobile devices.”

Crime figures for 2013 showed the devices accounted for two-thirds of all robberies in San Francisco.

And in New York, a senator introduced a bill in October that would make it illegal for any company in the state to buy or sell a used smart phone without proof of ownership, such as a receipt, according to the New York Times.

Thefts of Apple devices in New York City contributed to a 40 per cent increase in stolen electronics from 2011 to 2012. In Toronto, the brand now accounts for more than 50 per cent of all stolen phones, tablets and other hand-held electronics.

Policing the crime takes considerable resources.

“It’s very difficult,” says Greenaway, who is head of 12 Division’s criminal investigation bureau. Nearly all street robberies there involve the theft of electronics.

“It’s very cyclical. It’s generally a group of guys, three or four kids, who decide they’ll go and do robberies,” he says. “They’ll do them for a few days then lay low for a few days. Once we arrest that cell of guys, that kind of stops that crime from happening any further.

“Until another cell of guys start doing robberies.”

Greenaway launched an investigation after 15 students from Chaminade College, a Catholic boys’ high school near Black Creek Dr. and Lawrence Ave., were targeted on their way home from school in 2012. Some of the robberies involved beatings and resulted in concussions.

Uniformed and undercover officers from 12 Division were stationed near the school and police eventually made 10 arrests over a one-year period.

Greenaway and Mark Saunders — who was then head of the division but is now one of the city’s deputy chiefs — talked to students about the importance of being vigilant, walking in groups and not straying into parks.

Police in jurisdictions across North America say it’s that type of public education that can be key to preventing the crime, including a simple reminder of what that phone is worth.

“How often, when you would go out on a night on the town, would you walk around with $300 or $400 worth of cash in your pocket?” says Darius Garda, a crime analyst in 51 Division downtown, where the Church-Yonge corridor has experienced high levels of theft.

“You never would. If you did, you’d never walk with it in your hand as you walk down the sidewalk,” he says. “People need to realize criminals aren’t stealing these cellphones because they need to text their friends.”