I gave this man a stern yelling-at. That phone is not his.
Last night I had the misfortune to be on one of the last trains out from London Waterloo, the 00:09 to Guildford. I found a quiet-ish coach and settled in to stop at every station between London and my destination. Plus some other ones I swear only exist when you’re on a night train.
There were the usual fellow passengers, dotted around both the intoxication spectrum and the carriage. So no one took much notice when a rather drunk girl collapsed in a seat for a while and then got up and drifted off, seemingly looking for a toilet. However, she had left her bags behind and never came back for them.
Once we assumed she had alighted from the train, the phone in her bag began ringing incessantly. Assuming it might be her, I eventually answered it and assured a friend of hers that she had been on the train and hopefully got off at the correct stop. I said that if she didn’t come back for her bags, I would hand them in to Guildford Station last-and-found where she could easily collect them.
So I went back to my seat, still many station-stops from Guildford, and resumed my desultory twittering.
One of the other few people in the carriage though, got up and came and sat near the bag. During the casual carriage-banter when I first answered the phone, he had suggested to the whole carriage that we nick the phone. Thus I was already keeping an eye on him when he moved over and then took the phone out of the bag.
I was – to say the minimum – outraged.
So I began initially tell him to put the phone back before escalating to a full yelling-at, during which I had the presence of mind to turn my phone on and video the whole thing. I even asked him first if he minded me photographing him stealing the phone and he was so brazened, he held it up to pose with it. That is the screen-grab at the top of this page.
Spoiler Warning: I’ll post the video soon (although, it does contain a lot of swears: sorry kids) but he did eventually get off at the next stop and leave with the phone.
Naturally, I’ve already re-played the whole thing in my head countless times, but I’m happy that I didn’t resort to physically stopping him, or kicking his bike etc. If someone was defending my lost phone, I wouldn’t want them to risk violence. But I’m kicking myself for not moving sooner or putting the bag somewhere safer. So yeah: lots of yelling, all of it ineffectual.
I did hand the bag in at Guildford, with a note inside explaining what happened and my email address (Always carry a pen kids! (that advice will make up for the swearing)) and today I’ll report it to the Transport Police. I’ve already caused one phone thief to be convicted and sentenced, I’m keen for another.
If you do recognise this dick who would get the last Waterloo to Weybridge train, please get in touch.
Alternative blog-post title: “Maths Man: worst superhero, ever.”
UPDATE: Here’s the video on YouTube.
Congratulations on confronting this dick. I hope he gets caught.
I’ve got to say, though, that you do sound exactly like Will from Inbetweeners on this. Awesome.
Thank you for making this country a better place.
Good for you!
Good work. Let’s just hope they find him. Your campaign seems to be gaining momentum naturally but if you would like a list of all publications /journalists contact details in the uk/London/weybridge drop me a line. I work in PR and can get you one in a couple of minutes, which should help raise profile further? Keen to help get this total wanker publically humiliated. If I lost my phone I’d be devastated as I have so many treasured photos. Do keep this blog updated if they catch him too. I’ll be watching.
Great job!!!! Don’t you hate people like him
You should have stomped his fucking head in!
Any updates? Did the woman claim her purse yet and has anybody identified the thief?
I applaud you for being a good samaritan. We need A LOT more people like that in America, and everywhere else in the world.
Fair play to you for confronting the thief, with all this coverage I’m sure he will get caught. A scumbag like him should get locked away.
It’s good to see that there are good citizens out there.
Hope he gets caught. Well done mate for videoing him. It’s a shame that in his mind he really thought he wasn’t doing anything wrong. There is something seriously wrong with society if that’s truly the case. Well done pal. Well done.
Thank you so much for having the courage to stand up for someone else. Too often, people watch crimes committed and do nothing. I hope he’s caught, the immoral scum.
Ahmed,
You’re wrong, every citizen has a power to use force to prevent crime, the media has scared everyone into thinking you’re powerless to stop these people but you’re not.
Google the Crown Prosecutors guidance on using force and citizens arrest.
Every person within the UK has a POWER under law (Sec 24 of PACE plus Common Law Power) to stop and arrest persons who are committing crime, the ability to use force is there aswell should they resist.
The Police rely on common law to justify alot of their use of force, you have the same rights in these cirumstances, DONT believe everything you read in the papers because alot of it is untrue.
I grew up in Weybridge and have just put this on my fb profile, tagging everyone I still know from Weybridge and asking them to do the same.
Radman,
Almost right. Common law powers apply to any person – and further any person powers are provided by s.3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/58/section/3
PACE relates to police and provides for the use of force under s.117.
you are my hero!
Good to see the media are picking up on it. Only a matter of time before the British Transport Police are having words with him. I wonder what rubbish excuse he’ll come up with.
http://www.london24.com/news/crime/video_phone_thief_on_train_from_london_waterloo_yelled_at_by_passenger_1_1205251
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099249/Thief-steals-phone-girls-bag–poses-good-Samaritan-passenger-FILMING-him.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/shameless-mobile-phone-thief-caught-680323
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/301085/Shocking-video-of-shameless-thief-posing-as-he-steals-iPhone-from-woman-s-bag-on-train
I it violence of my rights. You just can not film everyone and post it like that. Eat s…. you m.. f… You do it again and you will end in jail. How dear you? You think that you are bad ass, no you are just an a… I will remember your face foreever.
Mike Tyson
Well done, we need more people to stand up to petty criminals like him, not just for friends but for strangers as well.
It must have been difficult not to hit him, that would have made the whole thing much uglier. Also mathematicians aren’t known for their fighting skills, unless it’s virtual.
A stern talking to? What a cowardly way to handle that situation. You could have helped but just stood by and watched.
Why didn’t you talk quieter on the phone so that it wasn’t so obvious they had been left unattended, stay with the bags, and then hand them in at the end of the journey?
What you’ve missed from this story is what you have done other then upload a video. Have you made a police statement? Have you contacted the police at all?
He’s done this before-gone after a phone thief, that is.
Matt Parker’s a math’s professor, and when HIS phone was taken, he managed to get the people responsible arrested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adWntZ-Fk9I
Wait, wait, wrong website. I do see the error in posting about a man on his own site. Golly why do all of these look the same nowadays?
@Radman
Have you ever tried putting the law into practice yourself? From personal experience I have found the law seems to favour the criminal more then the victim.
While traveling home one night with friends we all took a cab home. I was to be the last drop off, as he got out my male friend paid for the cab and handed me some money he had been holding for me. The cab drove around the corner and then turned in the wrong direction into a dark little back street, the driver then jumped out and preceded to try and pull me from the cab. I don’t know if he had rape on his mind or he had just seen the bundle of money I had been handed but I wasn’t going to find out. He obviously wasn’t expecting me to fight back and luckily when I twisted his arm he let go. I then delivered him a punch to the nether regions which made him stagger alittle giving me time to close and lock the door. Luckily in his rush to get out the car he had left the keys in and the car running, I don’t know why but I didn’t try to drive away, I did however lay on the hooter and this attracted someones attention, I don’t know who but the driver backed away from the car and within a few minutes a Police car pulled up and the driver ran up and I heard him say I was drunk and tried to steal the car. The police asked me to get out and take a breath test which I passed. I tried to tell them what happened but the driver kept yelling he wanted me arrested as I had broke his arm, the police calmed him down and talked him out of pressing charges, but they would not listen to my side of the story. They let him go on his way and took me to the station for an “informal warning” and so that I could “calm down” I couldn’t believe it.
Another story from when I was a teenager, my neighbour and friend was getting bullied right outside of her house by a group of thugs, her parents saw what was going on and while her mum called the police her dad ran outside to help, as the police arrived one thug attempted to set my friends hair on fire, her father grabbed him from behind and the pushed him to the ground, all this in full view of the police and other witnesses, Guess who was arrested and who let go? When the other witnesses confronted the arresting Policeman he said that the arrest stands as the father should not have taken the law into his own hands and he was doing the father a favour by letting the thugs go as now they wouldn’t try to sue him. So yeah in my experience a father can’t protect his daughter from being set of fire according to the East London Police.
So polite! Good for you!
I’m really interested to find out what happened to this guy. Surely he’s been caught by now. Any news?
This guy justified his behaviour because he too had lost an iPhone and no-one had been honest enough to return it. But what if he had installed something like Return My Phone and got his phone back?
(
He could have avoided being one of the UK’s most well-known and stupid thieves!
Or would he have thought twice before stealing the phone if a reward was offered for its safe return? Which is exactly what Return My Phone enables you to do – reward honesty and in this day and age very few people actually are honest
Hey, people! Englishmen had once been a great proud nation that didn’t afraid of enemies and defended themselves and their property. Where are you? Arabian and African civilizations really win the war without any battle now
There is no old good white Europe here
In this situation topic-starter have to stop the thief! You are not girls, you are men! Or not?
I’m not quite sure why you think that you were in a better, more trustworthy position to hand in the phone than he was? Surely you would also have got off of the train, phone in hand, and given it in? Just because you shouted, doesn’t make you right. Sorry, but I think you either should have taken the phone and bag with you – with another passenger (asking who was getting off at the stop you said, as proof you weren’t stealing it!) – or left him to it. Seriously don’t know why you think you’re better than someone else just because you shouted…