Watch Out: Here's Where Your Smartphone Is Most Likely to Get Stolen (Infographic) Smartphone theft is on the rise, so hold on to your precious devices.

By Laura Entis

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As a nation, we're head-over-heels in love with our smartphones. We'd rather live without sex than live without them, and we check them all the time (even when they haven't made any noise to indicate an incoming message or voicemail).

We're attached. Obsessed, even. For most of us, the thought of losing our precious device is a scary and increasingly real fear: smartphone theft is on the rise. Last year, 3.1million Americans had their smartphones stolen, up from 1.6 million Americans in 2012, according to Consumer Reports.

Where are our phones most at risk, then? What time of day should we particularly vigilant? And how do we react in the increasingly likely event that our smartphone is ripped away from us?

Related: Time for a Talk: Don't Let Your Phone Be a Selfish Boyfriend (or Girlfriend)

Lookout, a San-Francisco-based mobile security startup, has compiled an infographic that breaks it all down: Our phones are most likely to get stolen because we've unwittingly left them somewhere (in all likelihood, at a restaurant or bar) and even in urban areas, 40 percent of smartphone theft takes place between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m.

To recover a stolen smartphone, most of us are willing to go to pretty drastic extremes. Check out what we say we'll do in order to be reunited with our phone (or, at the very least, its data) below. For more information on smartphone theft in America, you can take a look at Lookout's full report .

Click to Enlarge+
Watch Out: Here's Where Your Smartphone Is Most Likely to Get Stolen (Infographic)

Laura Entis is a reporter for Fortune.com's Venture section.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Buying / Investing in Business

Big Investors Are Betting on This 'Unlisted' Stock

You can join them as an early-stage investor as this company disrupts a $1.3T market.

Science & Technology

How AI Is Turning High School Students Into the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

As AI reshapes education, students are turning school problems into products and building the future economy.

Leadership

My Business Hit $1 Million — Then a $46,000 Mistake Exposed the Biggest Bottleneck to Explosive Growth

How a costly mistake forced me to confront the real barrier to scaling and the changes that unlocked explosive growth beyond $1 million.

Starting a Business

The Hardest Parts of Being a Solopreneur (and How I've Learned to Handle Them)

Solopreneurship is on the rise, offering us freedom and independence — but lasting success depends on tackling its unique challenges with strategy.