THIS is the moment a brazen thief stole a woman’s handbag in a shop as she waited to be served.
Shocking CCTV footage captured the thug swiping her victim’s possessions in Selfridges, on Oxford Street, central London.
The woman puts her bag down on a seat right behind to her before the yob pounces into action.
Video clips, recorded on November 8, show the criminal scanning shoppers in both directions before moving in on the handbag.
After swiping it, she casually walks away, holding it as if it was her own.
One source said: “She just took the lady’s handbag.
“It is a real problem in the capital.
“The police have been doing an operation at the weekend in the West End too.”
It comes as an extra 100 Met Police officers were deployed to deal with offences like shoplifting and phone theft.
Operation Baselife has been kickstarted as Christmas approaches and more shoppers hit the highstreets.
Over the past week more than 140 people have been arrested by the force across the West End as as a part of the operation.
In another incident two thieves were caught trying to steal phones from women at a Leicester Square ice rink.
The duo were detained on November 4 by plain-clothes officers who stop and searched them.
Video footage showed on cop say: “It looks like you’ve made multiple attempts to try to nick phones from people.”
The pair are cuffed and deny any knowledge of where the devices have come from.
Meanwhile, just last week we shared shocking footage of two women stealing £2,000 worth of clothing from a central London store in broad daylight.
The shoplifters entered boutique Jovonna London, in Marylebone, and made off with a haul – including two fur coats worth £700 each – on October 29.
CCTV shows two women wearing caps and carrying large shopping bags walking in to the store, as a man stands at the door as a lookout.
Staff at the shop attempt to close the door to prevent the shoplifters from leaving, but the man says “don’t you dare”.
The women then proceed to stuff clothes, including two fur jackets and a clutch bag, from the shop’s racks and mannequins before fleeing the scene.
