Police are hunting a thief who was filmed by a train passenger stealing a mobile phone from a woman's handbag after she accidentally left it in the carriage.
University lecturer Matt Parker openly filmed the thief with his own phone, posting the footage on YouTube.
British Transport Police today appealed for information about the suspect and praised Mr Parker, who lectures in maths at Queen Mary's in Mile End. He was on the 12.09am Waterloo to Guildford train on February 2 when the woman, apparently the worse for drink, left her bag behind.
Minutes later, the suspect rifled through it and took out a white smartphone. Mr Parker confronted the man, shouted at him and demanded he put the phone back and told him he was filming him. "I was outraged," said Mr Parker.
"He was so brazen he held up the phone to pose with it."
Mr Parker tried to alert guards when the thief got off with his bike at Weybridge.
Police say the victim is a 34-year-old woman from East Molesey. Her bag was handed in at Guildford, where she collected it next day, discovering her phone missing and a note from Mr Parker about what happened.
Detective Sergeant Daren Bates said: "We'd like to thank Mr Parker and pay tribute to his quick thinking in capturing this man's actions on video.
"The incident is being investigated and we'll do all we can to identify the man responsible for this brazen theft."
If you recognise the man in the image, or have any information that could help, call police on 0800 40 50 40 and quote reference B13/LSA of 7/2/12.2.
