Thieves ravage Winter Wonderland and ‘clueless’ guests lose £500 worth of items

Guests, including Charlie Hernan (photo), are already having their belongings stolen at Winter Wonderland (Photo: Getty)

Thieves have already hit London’s Winter Wonderland and guests suffered “real panic attacks” after £500 worth of gadgets were stolen from their pockets.

Customers are reporting pickpockets and phone thieves at the iconic family attraction in opulent Hyde Park that opened less than two weeks ago.

Charlie Hernan traveled from Plymouth to visit Winter Wonderland on Friday with his boyfriend Sam when £500 of film equipment was confiscated.

She said Metro: “I brought my GoPro and purchased a new modification and memory card the day before for my Youtube channel.

“I was filming my boyfriend near a ride, put the camera in my pocket and when I went to take it out 30 seconds later it was gone.”

Charlie, 28, said she started crying knowing she had been “exploited and lost from such a special video”.

But despite several CCTV cameras in the area, she said no one wanted to take a look to see if they could track down the criminals.

Charlie was traveling to London with his boyfriend Sam when they had £500 worth of goods stolen (Photo: Facebook/Charlie Hernan)

The attraction attracts thousands of visitors each year (Photo: Getty)

Charlie said: “I felt so helpless. Security told me that the information desk would be able to check the CCTV footage, but when I asked they said there was nothing they could do.

“There were lots of cameras everywhere, even cameras on individual stands, but they didn’t help me either.

“I haven’t even received a call back from the police yet – I’ve accepted that’s not the case now.”

Another visitor, Emily Craner, said she had her new iPhone 16 Pro Max stolen as she left the attraction.

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She had come from Manchester for a work event and visited the venue with friends, but as she was leaving she decided to buy a bottle of water.

Emily Craner had her brand new iPhone 16 pro max stolen from her pocket outside Winter Wonderland (Photo: TikTok/emilyjanelife)

Emily said her phone was stolen near one of the entrances (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

But just moments after he took out his phone to pay, the device was missing from his back pocket.

She said: ‘I put my phone on the card machine, turned around to talk to my friend, put my phone in my back pocket while I went to unscrew the lid, and then it has disappeared.”

“It was so fast, there was no one next to me and I didn’t feel anything. Just one moment I had the phone and the next moment it was gone, it was crazy .

This left Emily “completely stranded” in the city as the thieves had also made off with her ID and she no longer had access to her banking services.

She said in a TikTok video: “I had no ID, no card, no phone, no money, and no way to get home.

“If I hadn’t been with my friend, I really would have been stuck in London. I had no idea where I was. They took everything away.

“I had a complete breakdown in the street, I had a panic attack, I was crying and screaming.”

Charlie said she agreed not to get her camera back (Photo: Facebook/Charlie Hernan)

Last year, 135 offenses were recorded at Winter Wonderland and 492 incidents of theft have been recorded there since November 2017.

This includes a woman who reported having her Balenciaga trainers worth £685 stolen while she was ice skating in 2021.

Police do not patrol the event itself, but operate around the park outside.

Emily has now warned people visiting Winter Wonderland to be extra vigilant and not take their phones out anywhere that could be vulnerable to thieves.

She said: “I feel really shit, depressed and just sad. It was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me in my entire life.

Police do not patrol the event itself, but operate around the park outside (Photo: Chris Gorman/Big Ladder/Getty Images)

“I’ve never had anything stolen before and I feel like a phone is the worst thing possible, especially since it was new.

“People need to be careful. If you go to Winter Wonderland or anywhere in that area, don’t have your phone out or in your back pocket.

“When I got off at the nearest metro station, I saw a woman who was crying with her husband because her phone had also just been snatched in the exact same place as me.”

Winter Wonderland and the Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment.

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