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If you want to hang onto your belongings on the tube, best avoid King's Cross St Pancras, which has been named the capital's worst tube line for pickpocketing, followed by Oxford Circus, Victoria, Liverpool Street, Stratford, Bank/Monument, Leicester Square and Holborn stations. Basically, just don't use the Central line.
The stats obtained from the Met under the Freedom of Information Act showed that between February 2015 and January 2016, there were 3,926 thefts at tube stations – an average of 275 crimes per month, with the Central line being most popular with thieves.
The data shows that 650 thefts took place on a Friday and that women are generally targeted more than men, who tend to use handbags instead of cramming all their essentials into pockets, which are more difficult to pick, ironically.
Purses, wallets, credit cards, foreign identity cards and travel cards were the items most frequently stolen and accounted for three-quarters of all the thefts, with thieves pocketing a mighty £1.47 million, the total value of the items taken during this period.
Take a look at the top ten worst stations for pickpocketing:
1. King’s Cross St Pancras
2. Oxford Circus
3. Victoria
4. Liverpool Street
5. Stratford
6. Bank/Monument
7. Leicester Square
8. Holborn
9. Green Park
10. Euston
In other tube news, London buses are getting digital tube-style route maps and built-in USB sockets
And you can see the original tube map drawing at a new British Library exhibition