Robbery foiled by cell phone video

A shopper at a Brighton, England, watch store said he scared off attempted robbers by filming them with his cell phone video camera.

Mark Thewlis, 28, said he was Christmas shopping with his 2-year-old daughter at Watches Of Switzerland when he saw two men attempting to smash the store’s window display, Sky News reported Friday.

I heard the screeching of a car, then a banging noise and I turned round to see these two guys smashing at the window with sledgehammers, Thewlis said.

He said he immediately pulled out his phone and began filming the men.

A third guy sitting in the car was as bold as brass and didn’t even have a mask on, so I filmed him too. It was quite a spectacle really and I managed to get quite close to them, he said.

Thewlis said the driver honked the horn after seeing the camera and the three men fled in a Volkswagen Golf.

Police said nothing was stolen from the store and the car used by the attempted thieves was later found abandoned.