A LEIGH shop owner has shared footage of an apparently cheerful customer snatching an iPhone X belonging to his brother.

Nick Bourne, 33, from Leigh, shared footage showing the thief entering his store, Nic Inc, Leigh Road, on Friday, with a friendly demeanour, browsing around the shelves acting like an “interested” customer.

Prior to the thief’s visit, Nick’s 24-year-old brother Chris Bourne, popped into the shop to have a chat. Chris sat down on a chair on the shop floor and unfortunately, his brand new phone slipped out of his pocket, leaving it on display.

Not realising his phone was now on the chair and not in his pocket, Chris said his goodbyes and left the shop.

Shortly after, at 12.45pm, the crook spotted the expensive Apple iPhone and wasted no time in pocketing it at the furniture store.

The tall, bearded phone-snatcher then proceeded to browse around the shop and was even approached by Nick, who asked if he needed any help, before smiling and casually leaving the premises.

Nick said: “The guy wasn’t my usual type of customer I get in the shop but I wasn’t suspicious of him at all, he was pretending to be an interested customer even after he’d stolen the phone.

“Ten minutes after my little brother left the shop, he noticed he didn’t have his phone and he came back in the shop saying he couldn’t find it.

“We called the missing phone and it was off. At that point we knew it had been stolen and I pretty much worked it out straight away that it must have been the guy who had just been in the shop.

“We quickly went back on the CCTV footage and watched the man’s every move before seeing him take the phone and putting it in his pocket.

“Then he has a quick chat with me as if nothing was, then leaves.”

Nick added: “I was shocked. It makes you feel sick. 99.9 per cent of my customers would have said ‘oh you’ve dropped your phone, or there’s a phone here’.

“My brother was just unlucky. He was going on holiday after he came in the shop to see me, it was a brand new iPhone X which he had only had for a week, and the case had all his bank cards in it – it’s really messed him up.

“My friend Terry who installed my security system through his company ICare Security Systems Ltd ensured I had a good quality video to share on social media and edited it to just include the key parts where the act takes place, so with any luck we can nail this scumbag.”

Shoppers are warned to take care of their phones with thieves operating in and around Southend too.

Criminals are targeting valuable phones and carrying out snatch and run raids.

A similar incident took place outside Happidrome Arcade, in Southend earlier this month. A man in a wheelchair who was with his carer, put his phone down for a briefly when it was snatched by a criminal who ran off down the road.

Anyone with information can call police on 101 or report information 100 per cent anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.