A British comedian has revealed the moment her bag was stolen from underneath her feet while she was catching up with a friend in central London.
Cally Beaton was sitting in a diner, enjoying a meal on Marylebone High Street, when two brazen thieves sneakily swiped her bag.
The comedian shared the moment on social media to her 247k followers, claiming it was ‘evidently’ the men’s ‘signature robbing move’.
Ms Beaton, whose bag was underneath her chair, had her back to the two men who carried out the bold theft during the middle of the day.
Footage shows the first man returning from the toilet before using his foot to sweep the bag towards him, as the second man then heads to the toilet.
He then places Ms Beaton’s bag inside his rucksack before making a swift exit.
The second man is then seen leaving the toilet and also leaves the premises without Ms Beaton realising her bag had been taken.
The comedian continues chatting with her friend, unaware that the two men had left with her bag.
Posting to social media, Ms Beaton, 56, praised the store’s staff and warned others, telling her followers to ‘stay safe out there’.
She wrote: ‘Please watch and share this footage of these two lovely guys (faces clearly captured on CCTV) who as I sat catching up with a friend just now, stole my bag from under my chair, bending it like Beckham in what is evidently their signature robbing move.
‘Maybe it will be shared widely enough they don’t get to do it to anyone else.
‘And big shout out to the enormously helpful staff where it happened.
‘Happy Twixmas, everyone. Stay safe out there.’
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘On Monday, 29 December at 5.07pm police received an online report of theft, alleged to have occurred at a restaurant on Thayer Street, Westminster, earlier that day.
‘A 56-year-old woman reported that her handbag had been stolen by two men.
‘No arrests have been made at this stage. Enquiries continue and anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting 01/8370099/25.’
According to shocking new figures, thieves have stolen more than £5.5million worth of luxury watches, handbags and jewellery from Londoners in just 19 months,
Data collected by the Daily Mail through a Freedom of Information request with the Met has highlighted the staggering rate at which thieves are targeting luxury accessories in the capital.
A total of 3,207 high-end items, worth upwards of £1,000 each, were snatched on the streets of London, laying bare the criminality that tourists and locals are forced to endure each day.
While the total price of those items that were stolen totals at least £5,538,000, the real figure is likely to be much larger, with watches valued as much as £30,000 among those that have been looted.
Unsurprisingly, Westminster was biggest hotspot for every kind of theft, with 363 handbags, 309 watches and 104 jewellery items stolen in the central London borough between January 2024 and August 2025.
The central London borough is home to some of the most famous high-end designer brands and entertainment stores, making it a hotspot for brazen and occasionally violent thieves.
Some of the most high profile victims of muggings in London in the past year include Bridgerton’s Genevieve Chenneour, Loose Women’s Christine Lampard and Jenson Button’s wife Brittny.
And while the Met has insisted they are cracking down on such crimes, the figures highlight an alarmingly low success rate for officers tracking down people’s items.
Police were only able to recover one person’s piece of jewellery following 1,036 thefts across the capital – meaning those who face similar thefts have a less than 0.1 per cent chance of having it returned.
Meanwhile, officers retrieved three of 792 stolen watches and six of 727 stolen handbags during the 19-month period.
The most targeted designer watch brand was Rolex, accounting for over 400 of the total watch thefts. This was followed by Cartier and Omega.
The most common handbag brands to be stolen include Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci, while jewellery items from Cartier, Van Clef and Tiffany were those most frequently targeted by thieves.
The data covers reports to the Met between January 2024 and August 2025, with luxury items defined as watches worth over £3,000 and jewellery and handbags over £1,000. There were 3,207 luxury thefts in total.
