Cell phones stolen after victims were distracted in restaurants

A thief who traveled the country to steal mobile phones from people while they were eating in restaurants has been jailed.

Nirix Stanescu, 24, was caught on CCTV in a takeaway in Reading and police released the footage as a warning to others.

She distracted her nine victims before taking off with their phones across southern England between May and July.

She placed a map or other document on the phones before distracting the victims and leaving with them.

Stanescu, of no fixed address, stole in Staines-upon-Thames, Walton-on-Thames and Woking in Surrey, in Milton Keynes, in Reading, Slough and Wokingham in Berkshire and in Oxford.

She admitted nine counts of theft at a hearing at Reading Magistrates’ Court on September 27.

Det Con Michael Hanson, of Thames Valley Police, said: “This case is a timely reminder of the risks involved in leaving property in plain sight.

“I advise people to keep their properties close at hand, or out of sight, to prevent opportunists like Stanescu from attacking them.”