/ 26 April 2006

David Copperfield escapes robbery

Illusionist David Copperfield has magically escaped getting robbed. After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts centre on Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car and demanded the group’s belongings, according to police.

An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with â,¬200, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield says he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cellphone.

”Call it reverse pick-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the licence plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested a short while later and the assistants’ property recovered. The tennagers were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

Three of the alleged robbers are 17, while the fourth, Dwayne Riley, is 18-years-old. – Sapa-AP