Drop rate for crafting items?

I have two towns one on IOS and the other is on android. Both towns are basically the same level 49. At the beginning of this event my android town had way more arbitrarium drops than my IOS town. Really didn't think much of it But when I unlocked the Collertor and started collecting for crafting it was really noticeable. The drops on IOS were terrible so I signed out of my iOS town and deleted the app and redownloaded the app and signed in. The fresh app is way better at drops now. Right away I noticed the drops were better but still not as good as on android. Worth a try if your drops are low.

petehd14 wrote:
I got four lockpicks easily, but the last one is impossible. I was wondering if there's a limit per day.

No limit im aware of it took be about 2 hrs to get 5 lock picks.

petehd14 wrote:
Where are the handcuffs dropped?

From felons after you defeat them by removing 3 hearts. Capes come from the HQ 1 every 4 hrs

I'm just hoping I can get every craft prize before the event is over.

I thought I had read somewhere that lockpicks could be gotten from criminals in your own town or friends. But I just went through the majority of my neighbors and got zero. Tons of phones though.

Which basically means my current loot (four hours after getting the botanical garden) is 4 lock picks, 1 cape, 1 handcuff, 34 phones. And given that phones are ONLY used for the Zenith Apartments and lock picks are for everything, the balance seems way off to me.

If you scroll down, you'll see the other prizes. Phones are also used for the Zenith City Store Front and the phone booths. You'll probably be able to craft a few of those phone booths.

Ah, that's strange. I even tried scrolling down before, but it didn't do anything. Now I see them. Definitely better, but the scarcity of lock picks still feels a bit off to me. In the hour+ since typing that last comment I've only gotten another 2 lock picks, bringing my grand total in about five hours to 6. Ouch.

A little update for you.... After only getting 2 lock picks from 17 criminals, I logged in this morning..... From the 60 criminals that spawned overnight I got a grand total of 3 lock picks and 1 cape! Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh! At this rate, I'll only have enough to get 1 brick of each new building by the time the event finishes!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Indeed. Lockpicks seem to be really scarce and the listed drop rate doesn't match with my own experience (and by reading here many others). I just counted 50 criminals that I tapped and I got 1 lockpick.
This is going to be grind.
On the other hand I was worried about felons but now that looks like the easiest one to me.