I almost got robbed yesterday evening

Yesterday evening I was sharing a beer with my girlfriend at Bret next to station Sloterdijk. A bum-looking eastern European guy wearing a clear blue hoodie and a yellow backpack approached us asking me for a cigarette quite politely.

I rarely refuse if it is asked nicely. While I was rolling it for him, he was having some random talks, claimed to be russian etc etc. He got closer while talking and discretely grabbed my phone that was on the table, luckily my girlfriend who was seating on the other side of the table noticed that and exposed him. We noticed that he had a whole group of shady friends around the bar, checking surroundings being most likely there to collect stolen items and make them vanish quick.

I told him to get away from us, he started to be threatening to both of us, and after a heated exchange he eventually left, only few meters away to another table, trying to pull the same trick. We kept an eye on him to make sure he was not stealing from them, called 112, notified the bar staff. A police car showed up within 2 minutes, he probably saw them from afar as he suddenly left in a hurry. Hope they caught him and found a reason to lock him up for the night.

This is my first bad encounter in NL, maybe I have been lucky in the past. Be safe all !