The Pickpocket In This Week's 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Is Known in Real-Life as Best Pickpocket in the World

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 22, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 22, 2014 |

Here’s an interesting note Sunday night’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which centered around a prank put in motion by a pickpocket who stole Captain Holt’s watch. That pickpocket is real-world pickpocket Apollo Robbins, who — according to a New Yorker profile — is considered the best in the world at what he does, “which is taking things from people’s jackets, pants, purses, wrists, fingers, and necks, then returning them in amusing and mind-boggling ways.”

From that New Yorker profile, a fantastic anectdote:

“A few years ago, at a Las Vegas convention for magicians, Penn Jillette, of the act Penn and Teller, was introduced to a soft-spoken young man named Apollo Robbins, who has a reputation as a pickpocket of almost supernatural ability. Jillette, who ranks pickpockets, he says, “a few notches below hypnotists on the show-biz totem pole,” was holding court at a table of colleagues, and he asked Robbins for a demonstration, ready to be unimpressed. Robbins demurred, claiming that he felt uncomfortable working in front of other magicians. He pointed out that, since Jillette was wearing only shorts and a sports shirt, he wouldn’t have much to work with.

“Come on,” Jillette said. “Steal something from me.”

Again, Robbins begged off, but he offered to do a trick instead. He instructed Jillette to place a ring that he was wearing on a piece of paper and trace its outline with a pen. By now, a small crowd had gathered. Jillette removed his ring, put it down on the paper, unclipped a pen from his shirt, and leaned forward, preparing to draw. After a moment, he froze and looked up. His face was pale.

“Fuck. You,” he said, and slumped into a chair.

Robbins held up a thin, cylindrical object: the cartridge from Jillette’s pen.”

So. Cool.

If you’re interested in that sort of thing, here’s a neat video demonstrating some of Robbins’ techniques.

He’s also given an incredibly popular TED talk on the art of misdirection.

(via Reddit)