TODAY Hosts Robbed Blind By Expert Vegas Pickpocket [Video]

How good are the pickpockets in Las Vegas? We can’t speak for all of them, but one Vegas performance thief picked the TODAY show hosts clean with a routine that made sophisticated crime look like magic.

Apollo Robbins, known as “The Gentleman Thief,” is a Vegas performer and expert pickpocket who uses courtesy to disarm a target before making off with wallet, watch, iPod, and everything else. TODAY show hosts Matt Lauer, Willie Geist, and guest-host Ryan Seacrest demonstrated that even safe-zones like the front trouser or jacket pocket aren’t sacred to a sticky-fingered pickpocket who knows his way around one’s personal space.

Lauer, Geist, and Seacrest started the routine nervously standing far away from Apollo, who decided to demonstrate his “theatrical pickpocketing” skills by offering the three hosts an item of his own to hang onto. To Lauer, he gave his own personal wallet. To Geist, a $100 bill. Lastly, he handed Seacrest a pen.

While approaching the three hosts to hand them his items, he demonstrated some impressive sleight of hand that not even a slow-motion replay would have caught. After breaching the personal space of all three hosts, he asked them to check their pockets for the items he handed them.

They discovered that not only did Robbins make off successfully with the items he handed them, but a few more of their own personal items in the process. To Geist, he handed back identification and credit cards, as well as his watch which he was attempting to guard closely.

The most impressive act was demonstrated with Lauer, who wound up holding the pen Seacrest was given, with Geist’s $100 bill rolled up inside.

You can check out Apollo Robbins’s pickpocketing skills as demonstrated on the TODAY show’s hosts below:

http://youtu.be/MG2HPtbV-80