The 'under-paper'

• A thief, or a pair of them, finds a target tourist or group sat on the terrace of some bar and with their phones on the table. • Whilst one keeps watch, the other approaches the targets with a map or a sheet of paper. • The thief places the paper so the tourists can’t see the phone and distracts them by asking insistently for directions or cash or whatever. • While one hand holds the paper or map, they use the other to take the phone and pocket it. • Once they have the directions, or whatever they were asking for, they leave as if nothing had happened.