A concert-goer from Airdrie was one of dozens of people who had their phones stolen after being pickpocketed at the OVO Hydro last weekend.
Adrian Baker, 27, who lives in Clarkston had his Google device worth over £800 taken from his pocket during the first song of the performance by the Canadian pop-punk band Sum 41.
He immediately noticed it had been nicked and made his way to the security desk in the concourse to inform staff.
However, engineer Adrian claims they were most unhelpful and unwilling to allow him to use a phone to inform his wife of what had happened so she could block his card and bank accounts and other apps that the thieves may have access to.
He wants to warn other gig-goers to be on alert when they attend gigs at the venue, and for staff to be more aware of what’s going on.
He said: “My pockets on the trousers I was wearing are really deep so I knew it hadn’t fallen out, but the security were like, ‘you’ve dropped it’.
“I told them that it had definitely stolen and asked if I could use a phone, but they said they didn’t have one that could make external calls. Then I asked to use one of their mobiles but they said company policy was not to let their personal phones be used by the public. They were just really unhelpful.
“Someone else came up to the desk minutes later and said their phone had been stolen, the band were only two songs into their set at that point.
“Eventually a steward, who’d left the building on a break let me use their phone.”
When I got home I started looking on social media and noticed a girl whose son or partner had their phone stolen. They said they’d been looking on the floor for it and found about 30 phone cases that had been ripped off to stop people being able to identify them. Then a guy said someone stole his phone, but he had a tracker on it.”
That individual claimed he caught up with the thief who then made off in a car, but not before he had relinquished a bag containing “about 30 phones” which was handed over to the police – along with the registration number of the car.
Inspector Iain Sibbald of Police Scotland, said: “We can confirm that police received several reports of thefts which took place at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, on the evening of Sunday, 27 October, 2024.
“It has been established that a suspect left the scene in a vehicle, after discarding a bag containing numerous mobile phones. The vehicle was later traced and recovered, and the phones are in the process of being returned to their respective owners. Enquiries remain ongoing.”
It’s not the first incident of its kind at the huge Hydro arena. In 2017 a gang of four men were convicted after 28 mobiles were stolen at a Royal Blood gig, they were caught after police launched a sting operation. And in 2020 dozens of fans at a Slipknot gig were targeted. A Kasabian in 2014 also saw dozens of mobiles worth thousands of pounds stolen.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), of which the OVO Hydro is part of, said: “The SEC has a robust security operation in place for all events which includes a large number of stewards on the ground, event control room with enhanced CCTV and an intelligence led approach, working closely with Police Scotland, to assess any suspected criminality.
“The venue also forms part of the National Arenas Association (NAA) group which enables us to share information on behaviours, activities and risks as concerts tour the UK, allowing us to implement measures at specific events.
“We did receive a number of reports of missing phones at the Sum 41 event and Police Scotland is aware of a small number of reports made regarding phones being lost or stolen.”
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