7 On Your Side warns of Outside Lands phone theft danger

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Nearly 200,000 festival-goers are expected in Golden Gate Park this weekend for Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. If statistics hold, several hundred of them will lose track of their mobile devices.

The stories of smartphone thefts are the stuff of legends in San Francisco.

"I've witnessed a woman having her phone snatched from her hands waiting over there for the Number 38 (bus)," one San Francisco resident said.

City streets can be tough on smartphone users. Festivals can be wicked in their own way.

"Absolutely set a pass code on your device. If you have a pass code on your device, no one can access your personal content on that phone. So number one, set a pass code. Number two, when you are at a concert like this the signal and conductivity can be a little shoddy, so batteries start to die so make sure you go to the concert with a fully-charged battery," Lookout Mobile Security's Alicia DiVittorio said.

Power is especially important if festival-goers are going to use an app that helps track down cellphones if they are lost or stolen.

Lookout has an app that snaps a picture of the thief then sends the phone's owner an email with the exact location of the phone. The basic Lookout app is free, a more robust one costs $3 a month.

Last year, when Outside Lands was over, wallets, keys and lots of phones were left behind. It will be the same for people this year unless they are more careful.