Daniel Jungleman Cates fell victim to a drive-by robbery this week, his welcome to London memorable for all the wrong reasons.
So, my phone got stolen by bike in London. Never had a chance to protect it. We really should know about these kinds of threats
— Daniel Cates 🇺🇸 🌎 (@junglemandan) July 28, 2023
It was a typically naïve Jungleman who tweeted: “So, my phone got stolen by bike in London. Never had a chance to protect it. We really should know about these kinds of threats.”
This coming in the same week that two men who robbed former world champion boxer Amir Khan of his $80,000 watch in London were jailed for two years each.
Joe Beevers, one of the original Hendon Mob who shot to fame and fortune playing poker in London, tweeted: “Had you just come out of a tube station? Everyone goes straight to their phone then, doesn’t look up and they wait on their bikes by the entrance.”
Jungleman may not have known it, but there were more than 90,000 mobile phones snatched in London last year according to official statistics, with only 2% being recovered.
The thieves often use bikes or mopeds to allow for a quick drive-by hit and getaway, and Jungleman – in town for the Triton SHR Series – was lucky it wasn’t worse than a simple phone loss.
Last year saw three people slashed by balaclava-wearing thieves when trying to help a phone-theft victim, one needing 52 stitches for a face wound.
Cates is no stranger to being robbed or mugged, appearing on Joey Ingram’s podcast with a black eye back in 2019.
That came about when he decided to take a late-night wander around Las Vegas but was punched in the face and robbed of his wallet.
In Vegas for some highstakes action at Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio, Cates revealed: “I got mugged…I’m ok, I just got punched a few times”.
With Bobby’s Room action hitting six and even seven-figures, the potential for disaster was high, but Cates lost less than $1million in the robbery.
“When I do carry that much, I’m way more cautious,” he told Ingram.
Although Cates doesn’t appear to have been targeted because he is a poker pro, other players have been involved in incredible theft stories:
- Joe Salvaggio had his $10k WSOP Main Event buy-in robbed at gunpoint in the car park of the Rio in 2019;
- Darren Elias was the victim of a home invasion robbery by fellow poker player Shannon Soroka;
- Barry Greenstein played prop bets with Phil Ivey during a live armed robbery at the WPT in Paris
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