ENTERTAINMENT CRIMES

I have never felt so dumb or literally scared in my life like when I went to Club INC on Friday night with my friends.

So its way past midnight and this guy puts his hands in my pockets, walking around us as we dance with friends and he literally tries to pick-pocket me, me being me, I ask him what he is doing.

I take one look at him he is dressed in a beautiful shirt, jeans, formal shoes, like most guys dress when going out clubbing, so he says he was just tryna dance with me and I think well maybe I am a bit paranoid.

So I dismissed him and carried on dancing until I spotted him again behind my friend who happened to have her cellphone in her jacket pocket.

So in that I start getting suspicious and I warn her to put her phone in her boobs and she immediately obliges, also telling me she felt someone doing something to her a while earlier.

Then just minutes into the dancing I see the same guy again lurking around some other unaware women who were chatting to the DJ and dancing up a storm.

To my unbelieving eyes, the most unthinkable thing happens....

The same guy places his hands in her jacket and takes her phone and stuffs it in his crotch... with me and my friend watching.

I walk over to the lady and ask her do you have a phone and she says "yes I have a blackberry" I tell her to check her pockets and her phone was GONE.

Next thing we pacing with her friends up and down the club to try spot this guy and he had vanished... We could not see him and he was really gone.

When we tell the bouncers they just so clam and tell us to bring the guy to them if we find him.

I spent the rest of the night in panic and constantly looking over my shoulder because I thought he might have seen us staring at him, causing him to make that theft his last of the night.

These questions still remain in my head:

1. Surely the bouncers would do their best to help us feel safe in the club by helping us look for the guy?

2. Why would someone take such a huge risk to steal phones when people are watching?

3. Was there really anything more I could have done to try get this guy, despite the fact that was petrified he might come after me?

4. How can I really go back to that club knowing the sort of petty crimes that go on there?

Things to keep in mind when you out clubbing:

1. Never trust anyone in a club no matter what they look like or how they seem

2. Most robbers blend in with the people so beware of the people around you when you are dancing or buying a drink

3. Carry a small bag rather than putting things in your pockets, because you get bumped so many times in a small space, you less likely to feel it when you have been pick-pocketed

4. Look out for your friends so they can look out for you too, there is no point in all of you being drunk cause you all would be easy targets for criminals

5. Stay in groups even if you going to the toilet, that way someone will know where you are and who you were last seen with if anything happens to you

6. If you can, leave your phone in your car, what calls can you really take or make in the noisy club

7. Thugs don't come with a sign on their heads they look just like everyone in the club, so be careful who you talk to, hang with and accept a drink from, even if he promises you the world... tell him you will buy your own world.

Reality is it seems no matter where we go we are most likely to get affected by crime.

But I still ask myself, what can we as citizens do to avoid being victims of this crime?