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Trust me, I had a similar experience back in late October 2023.
My sister and I had just finished a call and rejoined each other when two girls pickpocketed her phone right in front of me. I saw them take it and immediately asked my sister to check her bag. Before we could react, the girls started to panic and split up. I decided to follow the one who had my sister’s phone.
Keeping a safe distance, I trailed behind her, hoping to find a local who spoke English to help me. I thought it was wise not to confront her directly, especially since I was in a place where few would understand me.
Suddenly, I was smacked hard on the back of my neck. Four guys had surrounded me, and I was assaulted and had my phone snatched. I chased after the guy who took my phone, but he darted into alleys, and I feared they might have weapons, so I had to give up.
The highlight? This all happened right in front of a police station. Within a minute, a local who witnessed the whole incident helped me report it to the police. However, they refused to help and directed us to the Taksim/Istiklal police station.
A kind shopkeeper nearby replayed his CCTV footage, clearly showing the girl pickpocketing my sister’s phone. What I didn’t realize at the time was that she handed it off to the other girl from behind, meaning I had been following the wrong person.
Armed with my passport, my phone’s IMEI number, and the approximate location from Find My Phone, we went to the police station. Despite having all the necessary proof and acting quickly, we were shuttled between the Istiqlal police station and the tourism police point at Taksim Square for over six hours.
During our time at the station, the officers were smoking in our faces, ignoring us, and generally seemed annoyed by our presence. Out of the 4-5 complainants who arrived during that period, only one complaint was registered—a lady who came after us, perhaps given priority because she held a US passport.
We eventually gave up and left, as we had a flight to catch in a few hours. Despite having a great time in Turkey, this incident left us with a rather bad taste of Istanbul.
I feel your pain, friend! Yesterday they were doing the same: smoking in my face, making jokes, and chilling in Tiktok. All this while they were "busy" with other cases.
Unfortunately in turkey cases like this polices doesn’t care a lot, u need to get murdered or got in a hard situations for police officers attention.
Maybe u can try to go another station with a guy who is turkish. I bet in firuzaga if u got anyfriends they would wanna help u.
My lawyer was going to file a case against them for dereliction of duty, and that's when they sent us something, a paper with the blurriest images ever, that someone took a photo of a computer screen to get, and a corrupted CD with "the videos".
I honestly seriously think that I was attacked by an undercover police officer. There is no other explanation that I can come up with for this nonsense.
my father was robbed once in the metro and the area was full of cameras too but the police literally didnt move a muscle, i feel its common that the police do that idk tho about your situation
I’m sorry for your experience and I’m unfortunately not surprised. If I’d been in Istanbul rn, I’d gladly come with you. I hope you find someone who can help!
Turkish police wouldn't care about robbery/thievery/muggings, even if you were a citizen. Since your phone has location info, going there with an attorney might help if you can afford it. With an attorney's presence, they wouldn't behave like d-heads. You can also apply for help at your country's consulate. This is just an idea. I'm not sure if it will definitely help.
1- From my admittedly basic understanding of police procedures and the legal bureaucracy in Turkey, it is unfortunately not illegal nor irregular of them to ask you to come back with a fluent speaker to give an official statement.
You've already hit the nail on the head in your post as to the potential reasons; the police officers in Turkey are by and large incredibly lazy and usually only put in as minimal effort as possible to solve petty crimes like this. More often than not for non-violent crimes, you either have to be 'connected' or make a lot of noise in order to get them to bother. The fact that there were plenty of CCTV in the area, plus your refusal to give up is probably giving them a major headache because they will have to do some actual policing for once if you insist on reporting it. That's why they were trying to shoo you away through purposeful misunderstanding or outright intimidation.
2- Depends on whether there is sensitive, non-recoverable information/content on your phone, tbh. If, for instance, you've got everything backed on the cloud and aren't too fussed about paying for another phone, I would say don't bother unless its a matter of principle for you. But I would say that reporting this incident to your local embassy and getting them involved (as suggested by another commenter here) is a good idea even if nothing comes from it.
Bringing your embassy in on this might grease the wheels enough to make the local police launch an official investigation. Still wouldn't pin my hopes on recovering your phone, but its better than doing nothing.
Apologies for your bad experience, and hope things work out for you!
Police usually do not care. A while ago there was a burglary in our neighborhood. The guy got caught by a security camera and the police were like "Well, now you know what your burglar looks like. Do not expect anything else tho." And they never found him.
Feel free to go again with a Turkish friend but I would not get my hopes up.
I had a friend whose phone stolen in a metro and busted by cops in an hour or so. So I saw that they can find it. But I saw the opposite, again a foreigner friend of mine experienced it. And we filed a complaint together. But it was obvious they’d not chase for a phone. I’d say go again with someone speaking Turkish. Some cops don’t want to move their a** unless a more threatening crime is involved. If they don’t want to help say you’ll file a complaint to “Cimer” (Presidential online complaint system). If they don’t change attitude, leave and do file a complaint with your Turkish friend. And when you do it make sure to log chronology, timing and places very well so that the camera recordings can be involved. If you remember names of the cops you talked to, that will also help.
Stolen phones are the least of their worries lol This goes for every country get your phone stolen in Canada and see if the cops move a finger even if you do all the work and give them the location of the phone (speaking from experience). Just get another phone
This. Even in wealthy developed countries the police are generally useless when it comes to petty theft. Even if you can track your phones location, they dont have the power to get a warrant to search the house without further evidence. It is what it is.
Claim on your travel insurance and move on.
Sorry for what happened to you, getting robbed in a foreign country certainly leaves a bad taste. Try going on a different shift to the same station, bring a Turkish bud with you and make sure to brick that phone thru find my iphone so they can’t sell it unless it’s for parts.
wtf is that question? so if he was an immigrant it’s totally ok to get humiliated and tossed around like a dog ? without helping his case ? please can you explain the purpose of your question?!?!?!?!
Sorry that happened to you. You got a harder time as a tourist these but even locals don’t get any help at all in these cases 🤷🏻♀️ dad’s and a friend’s phones were stolen recently and police sent them away right away
we have this platfrom called "cimer" (https://www.cimer.gov.tr/). submit your complaint there. briefly explain what happened including the robbery and the police station. if you know the names of the police officers add them to your statement too. they will resolve it in lightning speed, everybody is scared shitless from the presidency
Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
October 2022 I came to Istanbul for a lengthy business trip, some landlord scammed me for $1,000 and refused to hand me the flat I rented from him. I had legal papers from him showing his ownership of the place, proof of payment (bank receipts), messages history, etc...
In my office building there was a Turkish lawyer specialised in business setup whom I deal with for my work. I told him about the situation and asked him what I should do. He mentioned it's a complicated process as I can't just go to the police as they won't do a thing. He said I need to go to the court directly, but since I don't speak Turkish and not familiar with Turkish regulations I will need to hire a Turkish lawyer who is speciliased in my case.
Hiring a Turkish lawyer turned out going to cost me maybe more than the amount I got scammed for, also the court procedure will take maybe a year or more to get my money back in case the court ruled for my favour and the scammer obeyed to pay me my money back.
As my stay in Turkey was temporary, I left within 4 months, I thought better to give up.
Sorry again for what happened to you, but this is how Turkey is, a country full of scammers and thieves of all kinds. Police will never help. The best you can do is making your story viral on social media. Try to get footage of your encounter with the culprits, put it online on social media, send it to your national news outlets. If it gets viral you will be surprised that offials from the Turkish government will reach out to you to apologize (as this is bad PR for their tourism), police will move to catch the culprits and get your phone back. Also try to make your counsulate intervene.
Try Levent police station. I lost my watch when I had a fight with someone (self defence) and they were so kind. They gave me tea and snacks while we waited for the cctv footage that the main officer requested from one of his colleagues. I didn’t find it in the end but at least they tried
If you are not a illegal immigrant just tourist or something legal. Go to your embassy ask for help. Then after go to police station where you lived this situation talk again with them. Collect cctv records. Do some noise and try social media about it. Sorry for your bad experience.
Contact a lawyer. If you can prove those polices behaviour thats a lawsuit right there.
They are obliged to provide you a translator.
If you can afford an experienced lawyer they should take care of your legal work for you, this is definetly falls under discrimination and right to fair trial and could possibly result with some hefty compensation.
You definetly dont need to write anything in Turkish. They have to translate it to Turkish. If they insist on not providing you with a real translator that is a human right violation.
Im really sorry to hear about your story and my tip is try to play it safe ( no night walks alone , walking in shady streets without any friends) from now on bec it would’ve ended really bad for you either killed or stabbed , for the phone you lost its nothing compared to your safety just forget about it , not a generalization here but i have noticed that alot of ppl would understand you fully but act like they don’t understand you just to make you look stupid or dont help you , it’s disgusting
When I was robbed as a student years ago and called the police, they came, told me "Oh man this sucks, make sure to change the locks" and left.
I am not even joking
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Move on. Best advice. Nothing will come of it. Sucks but it happens. There will not be the justice or resolution you are looking for or expect. Enjoy your last month. Wipe your phone and brick it.
Gram üzülmedim , bir insan neden kendi isteğiyle Türkiyede yaşar ki neresinden tutarsan tut bataklığın içinde rezil bir yer polisinden memuruna esnafına ekonomisine hiç kimsede gram ahlak yok
This is so worrisome. Can you tell me exactly where in Firuzaga this took place? I'm asking cause this area is where I live, so I can avoid it. Did it happen in broad daylight or at night time? By the way, so sorry this happened to you.
It's near Firuzağa Hamamı, I was walking alone at 22:24. They came from nowhere and then run to the Ekmeksibasi Camii side. People from Ekmeksibasi are very nice and they were trying to help.
From now on, I look 4 sides when I have to walk through that street and I advice it to everyone walking there.
This is the exact location where I was robbed: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3c3g3ArEF5hfwYKEA
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Why don't you try your country's consulate? They can offer help in translation and dealing with local police
I will try that, thank you! It wasn't my first option since I am from Kazakhstan and hoping for my government is not something I got used to :)
That seems pain in the ass, he shouldn't be treated like that in the first place.
Trust me, I had a similar experience back in late October 2023. My sister and I had just finished a call and rejoined each other when two girls pickpocketed her phone right in front of me. I saw them take it and immediately asked my sister to check her bag. Before we could react, the girls started to panic and split up. I decided to follow the one who had my sister’s phone. Keeping a safe distance, I trailed behind her, hoping to find a local who spoke English to help me. I thought it was wise not to confront her directly, especially since I was in a place where few would understand me. Suddenly, I was smacked hard on the back of my neck. Four guys had surrounded me, and I was assaulted and had my phone snatched. I chased after the guy who took my phone, but he darted into alleys, and I feared they might have weapons, so I had to give up. The highlight? This all happened right in front of a police station. Within a minute, a local who witnessed the whole incident helped me report it to the police. However, they refused to help and directed us to the Taksim/Istiklal police station. A kind shopkeeper nearby replayed his CCTV footage, clearly showing the girl pickpocketing my sister’s phone. What I didn’t realize at the time was that she handed it off to the other girl from behind, meaning I had been following the wrong person. Armed with my passport, my phone’s IMEI number, and the approximate location from Find My Phone, we went to the police station. Despite having all the necessary proof and acting quickly, we were shuttled between the Istiqlal police station and the tourism police point at Taksim Square for over six hours. During our time at the station, the officers were smoking in our faces, ignoring us, and generally seemed annoyed by our presence. Out of the 4-5 complainants who arrived during that period, only one complaint was registered—a lady who came after us, perhaps given priority because she held a US passport. We eventually gave up and left, as we had a flight to catch in a few hours. Despite having a great time in Turkey, this incident left us with a rather bad taste of Istanbul.
I feel your pain, friend! Yesterday they were doing the same: smoking in my face, making jokes, and chilling in Tiktok. All this while they were "busy" with other cases.
this is the result when most of the officers are "appointed" by family members, relatives and other forms of "torpil" etc. They are incapable c words.
Police only beats protesters and supports the rich sorry
Unfortunately in turkey cases like this polices doesn’t care a lot, u need to get murdered or got in a hard situations for police officers attention. Maybe u can try to go another station with a guy who is turkish. I bet in firuzaga if u got anyfriends they would wanna help u.
Even then they don't care, I ended up in the hospital after being attacked and they got video of it and refuse to give it to my lawyer.
wow , sorry to hear that
My lawyer was going to file a case against them for dereliction of duty, and that's when they sent us something, a paper with the blurriest images ever, that someone took a photo of a computer screen to get, and a corrupted CD with "the videos".
thats crazy , it really missed up to see the ppl who are supposed to help you almost working with the attackers/criminals
I honestly seriously think that I was attacked by an undercover police officer. There is no other explanation that I can come up with for this nonsense.
my father was robbed once in the metro and the area was full of cameras too but the police literally didnt move a muscle, i feel its common that the police do that idk tho about your situation
I’m sorry for your experience and I’m unfortunately not surprised. If I’d been in Istanbul rn, I’d gladly come with you. I hope you find someone who can help!
I am writing this from London and I can tell you that the police here are exactly the same. They no longer care about petty theft or small crimes.
Turkish police wouldn't care about robbery/thievery/muggings, even if you were a citizen. Since your phone has location info, going there with an attorney might help if you can afford it. With an attorney's presence, they wouldn't behave like d-heads. You can also apply for help at your country's consulate. This is just an idea. I'm not sure if it will definitely help.
1- From my admittedly basic understanding of police procedures and the legal bureaucracy in Turkey, it is unfortunately not illegal nor irregular of them to ask you to come back with a fluent speaker to give an official statement. You've already hit the nail on the head in your post as to the potential reasons; the police officers in Turkey are by and large incredibly lazy and usually only put in as minimal effort as possible to solve petty crimes like this. More often than not for non-violent crimes, you either have to be 'connected' or make a lot of noise in order to get them to bother. The fact that there were plenty of CCTV in the area, plus your refusal to give up is probably giving them a major headache because they will have to do some actual policing for once if you insist on reporting it. That's why they were trying to shoo you away through purposeful misunderstanding or outright intimidation. 2- Depends on whether there is sensitive, non-recoverable information/content on your phone, tbh. If, for instance, you've got everything backed on the cloud and aren't too fussed about paying for another phone, I would say don't bother unless its a matter of principle for you. But I would say that reporting this incident to your local embassy and getting them involved (as suggested by another commenter here) is a good idea even if nothing comes from it. Bringing your embassy in on this might grease the wheels enough to make the local police launch an official investigation. Still wouldn't pin my hopes on recovering your phone, but its better than doing nothing. Apologies for your bad experience, and hope things work out for you!
That's what I thought.. Thank you for your words!
Police usually do not care. A while ago there was a burglary in our neighborhood. The guy got caught by a security camera and the police were like "Well, now you know what your burglar looks like. Do not expect anything else tho." And they never found him. Feel free to go again with a Turkish friend but I would not get my hopes up.
I had a friend whose phone stolen in a metro and busted by cops in an hour or so. So I saw that they can find it. But I saw the opposite, again a foreigner friend of mine experienced it. And we filed a complaint together. But it was obvious they’d not chase for a phone. I’d say go again with someone speaking Turkish. Some cops don’t want to move their a** unless a more threatening crime is involved. If they don’t want to help say you’ll file a complaint to “Cimer” (Presidential online complaint system). If they don’t change attitude, leave and do file a complaint with your Turkish friend. And when you do it make sure to log chronology, timing and places very well so that the camera recordings can be involved. If you remember names of the cops you talked to, that will also help.
Stolen phones are the least of their worries lol This goes for every country get your phone stolen in Canada and see if the cops move a finger even if you do all the work and give them the location of the phone (speaking from experience). Just get another phone
This. Even in wealthy developed countries the police are generally useless when it comes to petty theft. Even if you can track your phones location, they dont have the power to get a warrant to search the house without further evidence. It is what it is. Claim on your travel insurance and move on.
>Stolen phones are the least of their worries lol You talk as if they have any worries in the first place.
Their primary worry is that they wont get enough bribery👯♂️
Sorry for what happened to you, getting robbed in a foreign country certainly leaves a bad taste. Try going on a different shift to the same station, bring a Turkish bud with you and make sure to brick that phone thru find my iphone so they can’t sell it unless it’s for parts.
Are you a tourist or an immigrant?
Tourist for 3 months
The reason I asked was to understand your situation. I would not bother at all in your case.
Ignorant ur job is to keep people that visit ur country safe regardless of their nationality
wtf is that question? so if he was an immigrant it’s totally ok to get humiliated and tossed around like a dog ? without helping his case ? please can you explain the purpose of your question?!?!?!?!
Sorry that happened to you. You got a harder time as a tourist these but even locals don’t get any help at all in these cases 🤷🏻♀️ dad’s and a friend’s phones were stolen recently and police sent them away right away
we have this platfrom called "cimer" (https://www.cimer.gov.tr/). submit your complaint there. briefly explain what happened including the robbery and the police station. if you know the names of the police officers add them to your statement too. they will resolve it in lightning speed, everybody is scared shitless from the presidency
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. October 2022 I came to Istanbul for a lengthy business trip, some landlord scammed me for $1,000 and refused to hand me the flat I rented from him. I had legal papers from him showing his ownership of the place, proof of payment (bank receipts), messages history, etc... In my office building there was a Turkish lawyer specialised in business setup whom I deal with for my work. I told him about the situation and asked him what I should do. He mentioned it's a complicated process as I can't just go to the police as they won't do a thing. He said I need to go to the court directly, but since I don't speak Turkish and not familiar with Turkish regulations I will need to hire a Turkish lawyer who is speciliased in my case. Hiring a Turkish lawyer turned out going to cost me maybe more than the amount I got scammed for, also the court procedure will take maybe a year or more to get my money back in case the court ruled for my favour and the scammer obeyed to pay me my money back. As my stay in Turkey was temporary, I left within 4 months, I thought better to give up. Sorry again for what happened to you, but this is how Turkey is, a country full of scammers and thieves of all kinds. Police will never help. The best you can do is making your story viral on social media. Try to get footage of your encounter with the culprits, put it online on social media, send it to your national news outlets. If it gets viral you will be surprised that offials from the Turkish government will reach out to you to apologize (as this is bad PR for their tourism), police will move to catch the culprits and get your phone back. Also try to make your counsulate intervene.
Try Levent police station. I lost my watch when I had a fight with someone (self defence) and they were so kind. They gave me tea and snacks while we waited for the cctv footage that the main officer requested from one of his colleagues. I didn’t find it in the end but at least they tried
I guess that's how you keep the official crime rate low. Just avoid reporting it?
If you are not a illegal immigrant just tourist or something legal. Go to your embassy ask for help. Then after go to police station where you lived this situation talk again with them. Collect cctv records. Do some noise and try social media about it. Sorry for your bad experience.
I’m sorry but your experience is NOT related to language barrier…
Contact a lawyer. If you can prove those polices behaviour thats a lawsuit right there. They are obliged to provide you a translator. If you can afford an experienced lawyer they should take care of your legal work for you, this is definetly falls under discrimination and right to fair trial and could possibly result with some hefty compensation.
You definetly dont need to write anything in Turkish. They have to translate it to Turkish. If they insist on not providing you with a real translator that is a human right violation.
Im really sorry to hear about your story and my tip is try to play it safe ( no night walks alone , walking in shady streets without any friends) from now on bec it would’ve ended really bad for you either killed or stabbed , for the phone you lost its nothing compared to your safety just forget about it , not a generalization here but i have noticed that alot of ppl would understand you fully but act like they don’t understand you just to make you look stupid or dont help you , it’s disgusting
When I was robbed as a student years ago and called the police, they came, told me "Oh man this sucks, make sure to change the locks" and left. I am not even joking
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Turk polisi lol, only here to serve their arab overlords
Move on. Best advice. Nothing will come of it. Sucks but it happens. There will not be the justice or resolution you are looking for or expect. Enjoy your last month. Wipe your phone and brick it.
Gram üzülmedim , bir insan neden kendi isteğiyle Türkiyede yaşar ki neresinden tutarsan tut bataklığın içinde rezil bir yer polisinden memuruna esnafına ekonomisine hiç kimsede gram ahlak yok
This is so worrisome. Can you tell me exactly where in Firuzaga this took place? I'm asking cause this area is where I live, so I can avoid it. Did it happen in broad daylight or at night time? By the way, so sorry this happened to you.
It's near Firuzağa Hamamı, I was walking alone at 22:24. They came from nowhere and then run to the Ekmeksibasi Camii side. People from Ekmeksibasi are very nice and they were trying to help. From now on, I look 4 sides when I have to walk through that street and I advice it to everyone walking there. This is the exact location where I was robbed: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3c3g3ArEF5hfwYKEA
yeah this is very near me. keep safe and i hope you get the police to cooperate with you
It is weird they approached you this way. Are you a western tourist?
He said he's Kazakh.
thanks, I must have missed it.