‘Really scary’: Victim on guard after being pickpocketed in South End

CHARLOTTE — A girls’ weekend turned to disappointment after a woman says her phone was stolen right out of her pocket at a South End Charlotte bar.

Channel 9 Crime Reporter Hunter Sáenz spoke with the victim. She said she was having a great time with her friends over the weekend -- but when she went to grab her phone from her pocket, it wasn’t there.

The Gin Mill is a South End favorite, known for its live music and good times. But pickpocketers targeted several people there.

One woman, who asked that we not use her name, says her four-day-old iPhone 16 Pro Max disappeared in a flash.

“I touched my pocket and it wasn’t there, and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’” the victim told Sáenz.

She looked for it, but knew she didn’t just drop it.

“When my friends checked my location, it had been switched off,” the victim said. “So I knew immediately that OK, it’s gone.”

She told a police officer working security, who she says seemed unphased by the report.

“He was like, ‘You’re the 11th person tonight,’” she said.

The next day, the location briefly came back online. The victim says the phone pinged to a Motel 6 just off Nations Ford Road and Interstate 77, but it last pinged on a highway in South Carolina.

“It’s really scary,” she told Sáenz.

The victim says she wants others to know and be more aware of pickpockets, considering how much society depends on phones.

“We always have to have our guard on,” she said.

That victim said her ID and credit card were also attached to her phone and stolen. She’s now working to get a new phone.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says three people filed police reports, and they’re investigating.

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