An American woman has called for others to remain vigilant after enduring a terrifying ordeal at Leicester Square’s Christmas Market in central London. Seasoned traveller Kelly took to TikTok to warn others heading to the festive extravangaza after she was robbed on Saturday, November 8. Attending the event with her husband and children, she revealed that their excitement at what they believed would be a “great day” turned sour in the evening darkness.
“We decided by 7pm we would leave the market and were walking towards Chinatown,” Kelly explained. “I keep my phone in my front pocket and, as my knee was hurting, I was walking a little bit slower and got shoulder-charged.”
After feeling a “yank to the neck”, Kelly said she made eye contact with a man who subsequently “bolted”. Kelly continued: “I kept going and my husband and I held hands after that – so I didn’t need to put my hand in my pocket.”
However, several minutes later, it soon became apparent that she’d been the victim of theft. “I put my hand in my pocket to see if my mom had called me and my phone had been stolen,” Kelly said.
“My son then pulled up [app] Find my iPhone and it was pinging in a spot of a casino in Chinatown. We ran the whole way there and [at the casino] I said to the lady, ‘My phone was just stolen and we need to go in and get it’.”
However, much to Kelly’s dismay, she was told she wasn’t permitted to enter. “My husband didn’t listen though and just went in, and the lady told me he’d get dragged out and that I should go and find a ‘red coat’. So I went around the corner where she said, and behold – the guy that bumped me was leaning against the wall.”
Kelly said she retreated to the casino entrance after the man “followed” her with his eyes, where she found her husband who had learned the phone had been switched off. She swiftly led him around the corner to the man she suspected of the robbery. “I was 99.9 per cent sure he had it as I knew it was him who bumped me,” she said.
By this point the man had been joined by another, who made his way over from a neighbouring casino, as Kelly added: “My husband said to them, ‘Did you guys take my wife’s phone?’ but they were like, ‘We are tourists, we have nothing’. But to me they were definitely looking for someone else to do it to.”
With stabbings in the capital on her mind, Kelly said she conceded defeat out of fear and instructed her husband to leave the men alone. “I told him to forget it,” she admitted. “I cried. I was upset, because I was thinking what if I don’t get my photos back or they get my banking info.”
However, it soon became apparent that her phone wasn’t the only thing that was missing.
“We got back and I took a shower and realised my necklace was gone – that was when I felt like I was jerked – that’s what it was,” Kelly said. “I can get a new phone, but that was a birthday present from my husband – we don’t have a ton of money so it was special to me.”
Kelly and her husband later went to a police station, where there were several other women reporting similar crimes. “The police said they couldn’t help but that we should file a report via a QR code,” she said.
However, there was to be no happy ending to the tale, as Kelly said: “We did that around midnight and by noon the next day I had received an email saying that the case was closed and they couldn’t do anything because… what can they do, I guess?
“Take one – I’m never going to go to Leicester Square again. Two – I think I am going to wear a cross-body bum bag and have it inside my coat.
“Three – they [police] know that it is a problem and happens to multiple people and on [AI tool] Copilot it says on average 37 cases like this are recorded per day in Leicester Square. And four – the casino – clearly they know and that’s why they didn’t let us in.”