A London thief chose the wrong actor’s phone to try and steal.
“Bridgerton” actor Genevieve Chenneour, 27, went viral after a video captured her fight off a man who snatched her cell phone at a London cafe when she wasn’t looking.
Security footage shows the English performer sitting on Feb. 8 as a man grabs her device from her table while she’s looking away. As he walks away, she quickly notices and does not hesitate to stop him. With the help of a bystander, Chenneour kicks and pushes the man to the ground, takes her phone back and appears to strike him with it.
“I had a bit of a sixth sense that something wasn’t quite right. As a woman, you have that kind of intuition,” Chenneour said in an interview on the “This Morning” talk show. “I could feel people moving around me in a different way, but I only became aware of it once the incident had happened.”
Chenneour she believes the man had spent time picking the perfect target, which she quickly proved wasn’t her. She explained that she remembers kicking him back with her leg to create distance in case he had a weapon on him.
Looking back she understands that not everyone would have fought back, but said she instinctually opted to because of her experiences as a boxer and growing up with three brothers.
“I thought that was a normal reaction, and then I read all the comments and realized actually a lot of people would just let them take the phone,” she said. “It was just a life changing, crazy moment.”
Chenneour said she felt scared to leave home after incident
While Chenneour managed to leave the business with her phone, she said the experience impacted her anxiety, making her more fearful to leave her home.
“As a woman, we already have our wits about us around strangers and random men. So to have this happen to me while dealing with that probably base level that a lot of women have just made me quite agoraphobic,” she said.
She added that the experience opened up many conversations that made her more aware of how many people are afraid of being out in public.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service arrested an 18-year-old man who is set to be sentenced over theft and assault charges on June 17, according to BBC.
Who is Genevieve Chenneour?
Chenneour is 27-year-old English actor best known for her role in Netflix’s “Bridgerton.”
In Season 3 of the hit romance show she plays Clara Livingston, a debutante at the start of the 1815 season.
She is a former professional athlete who grew up in a military family, according to her IMDb page. She has prior experiences in dance, swimming and gymnastics and said she is a carded member of the American Boxing Association.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video captures ‘Bridgerton’ actor thwarting would-be phone thief
