Made in Chelsea’s Yasmine Zweegers has fallen foul to a terrifying new theft scam which sees crooks chucking paint over their victims before stealing their valuables.
Influencer Yasmine, 25, had her jewellery, laptop, camera and clothes stolen by a suspected organised gang of criminals on Sunday evening.
She had been with her mother, Marianne, outside London’s St Pancras International station, in King’s Cross – having just returned from Yorkshire – when she was targeted.
Unsuspecting Yasmine said she was about to get into an Uber when a man called out to her, warning her she had brown paint on her back.
He then offered the shocked reality TV star a tissue to clean the mess from her coat – before her bag was snatched while she was distracted.
Taking to TikTok following the theft, Yasmin told her 196,000 followers: ‘This is such a silly scam that anyone would probably fall for. I literally don’t want this to happen to anybody else.
‘I felt so violated. I thought this man was just being super kind to me and he very much wasn’t.’
Yasmin said the attack took place at about 8.30pm on Sunday and that she had no idea she was even being scammed.
Made in Chelsea’s Yasmine Zweegers has fallen foul to a terrifying new theft scam which sees crooks chucking paint over their victims before stealing their valuables
The 25-year-old star had paint thrown on her coat on Sunday while she was waiting for a taxi outside of London’s St Pancras International station
Yasmine said she felt ‘violated’ by the attack against her over the weekend
Describing the incident in a video on social media, she said: ‘We were about to go to the taxi and this man comes up from behind me and goes “excuse me, you’ve got some s*** on your back”.
‘I said “sorry?”. He says “you’ve got stuff on your back”.
‘At the time my mum was like “oh my gosh when did that happen? I’ve literally been standing there behind you the whole time”.
‘It was mental how we both completely did not even notice when that happened.
‘The man then hands me over a pack of tissues. So I take the tissues, and it made me think “let me take me coat off to wipe the paint”.
‘Now in hindsight, I should have never taken my coat off.
‘I was so silly I literally go to the man [who] I thought was such a kind man, I was saying “thank you for the tissues”.’
Yasmine explained she was worried about getting paint from her coat on the inside of the Uber so was holding the jacket up at the time.
She suspects this was when her bag was snatched.
She had been with her mother, Marianne, when she was targeted (Marianne and Yasmine are pictured together)
Yasmine – who in November was revealed to have split up with her boyfriend Sam Prince – said she felt ‘violated’ after thieves stole her bag
‘We had just come from a family’s party in Yorkshire – jewellery, laptop, camera – everything, you name it, it was gone. I didn’t want to wear any of this around London so it was all in that bag,’ she added.
The Made In Chelsea star believes the man who warned her about the paint on her back was acting alongside a team of other crooks, who were prowling nearby.
‘I think there is a group of people doing this. One is throwing the paint, the other’s distracting, the other’s taking the bag and at first I literally just thought I was having a really bad day… I didn’t think of someone throwing paint on me.
‘It only occurred to me later that that was all a set up,’ she said in a video.
The attack rounds off a turbulent few months for Yasmine. In November it was revealed she had split up from her Made In Chelsea boyfriend, Sam Prince.
The pair had been together for a year and had previously spoken openly about marriage and children before their relationship collapsed.
Speaking of the break-up, a source told MailOnline: ‘It wasn’t a nasty break-up at all, and they still remain good friends.
Yasmine released a video on TikTok to warn her followers about the suspected theft scam
Made In Chelsea couple Sam Prince and Yasmine Zweegers broke up last year
Sam and Yasmine ended their year-long romance a month ago but the separation was amicable, and the pair remain good friends
The theft against Yasmine is the latest reported criminal scam to hit the capital.
The surge in thefts has already prompted a major operation by the Metropolitan Police to crackdown on the scourge plaguing the city.
Earlier this month, more than 1,000 stolen phones were seized and 230 people arrested in a week-long blitz as Scotland Yard fights back against London’s phone theft epidemic.
The Met Police carried out the targeted operation as the force ramped up its bid to bring an end to the marauding phone thieves who prowl around the city on e-bikes and mopeds.
The £50million-a-year crimewave has threatened to spiral out of control in recent years with crooks raking in the cash by selling the stolen devices on British soil or abroad.
Now the force is using plain-clothed officers and phone-tracking data to gather intelligence and hunt down the smartphone snatchers plaguing the capital’s streets.
During one arrest in north-east London, a 15-year-old boy riding an illegal e-bike was found with a ‘large’ knife and £1,000 in cash.
An increase in patrols and operations have been carried out in hotspot areas, including the West End and Westminster, where the Met says nearly 40 per cent of phone thefts occur.
Officers have used the tactics and victims’ reports to snare a gang who were caught handling more than 5,000 stolen phones.
MailOnline has approached the British Transport Police for comment.
