A thief was forced to hand back a phone he was trying to steal after discovering the door he was trying to flee through was locked.

Shop owner Manmeet Singh, who owns Urmston Mobile Tech, in Urmston, Greater Manchester, claims the man came into his shop on Wednesday, demanding to see the new iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Mr Singh, 35, explained he didn’t have it in stock but offered to show the man a Samsung A21S instead.,

The customer asked to hold the device but, as he grabbed the phone, he turned around and tried to rush out of the door.

Footage from the shop’s CCTV showed the hooded would-be thief grab the door handle and discover he is trapped inside by an electronic lock, forcing him to sheepishly return the phone to his intended victim.

To add to his embarrassment, the man was forced to stand and wait for his bus directly outside the shop, while Manmeet watched on.

Manmeet, from Partington, Greater Manchester, said: ‘He was the worst thief ever.

‘As soon as he started running, I said “you can’t go anywhere”. I told him, even if he walked out, I would have caught him by walking. That’s how slow he was.

‘I found it funny, more than anything. I was just standing there because there wasn’t any point doing anything. After he gave me the phone, I said “don’t come back again”.’

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Manmeet had grown suspicious when the unknown man began rushing him and ‘tapping on the counter’ for him to hurry up.

He said: ‘When I handed it (the phone) to him, he just started running, but I have an automatic lock on the door so he couldn’t run away. It’s an automatic lock that I have control of.

‘When he was pushing the door, I thought he might break it. I tried to come out of the counter, then he just came back and returned the phone.

‘He didn’t say anything. He was left moping out the door and he was standing at the bus stop. He had to wait for his bus outside the shop.’

Manmeet says he is yet to report what happened to the police as they failed to attend a similar incident when his own phone was stolen in April 2020.

Greater Manchester Police said its officers were unable to attend on that occasion after an ‘assessment of the threat, harm and risk posed and demand on the force.’

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