Hard to know what to make of this one. The interaction — at least what we can see on the store’s security camera — looks awfully brief.
Breitbart London’s Nick Hallett reports that a professional hypnotherapist, Jack Hayward, vouches for what we see from the perp as the actions of a practiced hypnotist:
Hypnotherapist Jack Raymond said that there is little doubt the man is a “very slick, competent and practiced” hypnotist.
“This is someone who could have learnt it from a book or on the internet,” he said. “But he would have practiced considerably. He would have done this before. It could have taken him weeks but likely months to perfect. It takes some people many years.”
The robber appears in a (frankly tacky-looking) black bomber jacket, and is said to be of Eastern European background. The store owner, Atfab “Aziz” Haider, is in the white shirt. His friends were as stunned as he was by the event:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
We had no idea Aziz had been hypnotised. When he told me what happened I just thought, how could he have just let someone hug him and start going through his pockets?
He said he just suddenly realised the man had stolen from him and ran out of the shop to find him but he got away. He had hundreds of pounds stolen from him.
