At Rich's phones "were taken directly from their hands."

In the last few months, there's been a slew of electronic theft reports online from all over the county — laptops, iPhones, and headphones. Some local thieves are brazen enough to steal iPhones from the owners' hands. Other thieves are more discreet, utilizing their own phones to locate Bluetooth and WiFi signals to steal other devices.

Chula Vista resident Adrian Santos heard of thieves at clubs in Baja, preying on American and Mexican national clubgoers. "The thieves steal cellies out of the partygoers' back pockets and fanny packs," he explained, "but that shit also happens here in U.S." Santos is referring to "thieves jacking" iPhones and cellphones from patrons at Rich's, a Hillcrest club in July. "They were taken directly from their hands."

And regarding the people breaking into automobiles around town, Santos, who installs car stereos and alarms at an undisclosed shop on Broadway in Chula Vista, explained the thieves are seeking vehicles that emit Bluetooth and WiFi signals. "The thieves look on their phones for signals when they walk around parking lots and streets. And if a signal becomes more prevalent as they get closer to a car, that car might contain an expensive laptop, iPad, iPhone, or even AirPods Max headphones."

Santos thinks the thieves in San Diego are mimicking other cities. "They do the Bluetooth method of burglarizing a lot in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. To be safe, people should turn off their electronics in the cars or take the gadgets with them."

But only some people remember to shut off or remove their devices from the confines of their vehicles.

"I came around the corner and saw a smashed-in window."

On Labor Day weekend, Natalia Gholamzadeh from North Park noticed her car was broken into. "They stole my daughter's diaper caddy and our laptop." In a recent interview, Gholamzadeh said, "The laptop was a Lenovo Thinkpad T-480, which is the property of National University. The laptop was in a dark brown leather letterman-style bag and included a flash drive with all my work files. I am beginning to lose hope, but you never know."

On August 25, a thief broke into Kelley Dukat's vehicle on G Street by downtown while she was in Petco Park working. The thief made off with her silver-colored Lenovo Yoga 720 laptop, passport, global entry card, and other vital documents. "I almost didn't notice at first, but came around the corner and saw a smashed-in window. I was alone on the street, not knowing what to do. The glass was all over the front seat, and I immediately called and texted my best friend, who lives in the suburbs.

"Mine was the only car it happened to, so it wasn't your typical string of thieves trying to get everything from one neighborhood.

"I am hopeful that someone saw or heard something or just posting if anyone happens to find anything that might have my name on it." Dukat made a police report and left me her email address.

Sadly, many stolen devices are sold online and go to people out of state and outside of the U.S.

In July, Alexia Binanti's $1500 iPhone was nabbed at Rich's nightclub in Hillcrest, she said in an ABC 10 New report. She'd later track it to China. Also, on the news report, Roger Krick said his two cell phones were stolen from his crossbody bag while strolling through a bunch of people at Rich’s.

Hillcrest nightclubs and bars then reportedly restricted the size of bags brought inside to deter thieves from leaving with a large bag full of stolen phones; Rich’s also performed random bag searches at the exits.

Up at UCSD, high-tech thieves are running amuck. In June, a Redditor said in part, "I just had $6,000 worth of stuff — [an] iPad, MacBook, a fuck ton of other electronics — was stolen from me at Price Center. They took off the AirTags and turned off all my traceable devices… fml." Then, another student said, "Had my car broken into right next to the Salk Institute; 15 other cars got hit in the span of one hour."

About three miles away, surfers in La Jolla were also targeted by high-tech thieves. In May, shortly after Alex L. parked his white-colored SUV at La Jolla Shores Drive to go surfing, someone smashed the rear passenger window and stole his work laptop. Also in May, Kelly F. was running by the exact spot where Alex's car was burglarized, and "another surfer flagged me down to borrow my phone," Kelly explained on NextDoor. "They took all her clothes too, her phone, which was hidden in the trunk."

What happens to the stolen electronics?

A Redditor who goes by tubezninja explained regarding some Apple products. "The first thing they’re going to try to do is contact the owner by text message and trick them into thinking Apple is contacting them with location details of their phone. This is to trick the user into giving away their iCloud login credentials and/or the phone’s passcode. If this is successful, not only can the thief remove the activation lock and resell the phone for a premium, but they now also have access to the user’s apps, financial info, iCloud account… you’re basically in for a huge mess beyond just losing your phone if they can successfully phish you.

And if the phishing scam doesn't work, the thief will likely part out the stolen devices; tubezninja continued, "Individual parts like the screen and camera assemblies can be sold to third party repair shops to fix other phones. They won’t get as much for the parts than if they were selling an unlocked, fully functioning phone, but it’s still profitable for them."

And remember Binanti, whose Apple iPhone was stolen at Rich's in July? I tried to contact her on Facebook for an update, and she didn't respond. However, she did say on the newscast that she tracked her iPhone landing in China, where other victims around the U.S. are tracking their stolen phones — as seen on a [Barely Sociable] YouTube expose video titled "Inside The Illicit World Of iPhone Trafficking."