I thought my day’s been going well so far, until just now.

I was minding my own business at the Starbucks on Shaftesbury Avenue and Rupert Street (London, UK), and then this random geezer — probably Middle-Eastern — came out of nowhere with two “Starbucks Coffee at Work” leaflets in his hands. I didn’t pay much attention to this dude while he hassled a few other customers, until he came to me.

The man gave me a leaflet, so I looked, but didn’t take it. Then he mumbled something. I couldn’t understand this nutter, so I leaned forward — over my laptop and my phone on the left — and asked him to repeat. At this point, he put one of his leaflets over my phone (as pictured), and then somehow swiped the device and wrapped it inside his other leaflet.

Well, I still couldn’t understand a word, so he just tapped the leaflet on the table — sorta suggesting I check it out — and started to walk away as if nothing had happened. Then my spider sense triggered and noticed my phone was missing. Luckily, he was literally only two metres away then, so I got up and shouted “Hey! Where’s my phone?”

Well, I thought he was gonna do a runner then, but that loser just withdrew my phone — my white iPhone 4 (grrrrr…) — out of his leaflet, gave it back to me, and just walked away. What the fuck? So I started chasing after him and that was when he really legged it.

I only chased him out of the door and watched him run away — didn’t really want to leave my laptop in the shop after what had happened. Needless to say, the other customers were pretty shocked as well.

Even though I got my phone back, now I kinda wish I had grabbed hold of him and pinned him down.

Thanks for those who asked — I’m OK now, just a bit shaky. But hey, at least I got to triumphantly wave my white iPhone 4 around the cafe afterwards. :D

If you've always wanted to check out the gadget markets in Hong Kong, why not start with our video tour on Engadget? Would love to get some feedback and support. :)

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Hey, I saw some cool things in London over the last week or so and had been meaning to post the videos. Here we go:

15th November: many rollerskaters briefly took over Shaftesbury Avenue, and one girl almost tripped over in front of me.

15th November: I visited the Marmite Pop Up Shop on Regent Street. Do check it out if you 'love it'!

20th November: a Nokia demonstrator caught my attention with his pre-release Nokia N900 for street demo. Naturally, I had to video this. Stay tuned for Engadget's in-depth review soon.