A young man who tried to steal two iPhones from a Yorkshire shop was foiled by a thief’s greatest nemesis – a locked door.

In what might have been the shortest robbery ever, CCTV captured the moment the thief’s plan to steal £1,600 worth of mobile phones backfired spectacularly.

The man attempted to steal from the Phone Market shop in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, at 4pm on December 4.

But he ended up having to return the phones and beg the shopkeeper to let him go after he simply locked the front door.

He initially pretended to be a customer, coming in wearing a light blue hoodie, black jacket and Nike trainers.

The shopkeeper behind the counter handed the man two iPhones when he booked it to the door.

The thief had to awkwardly hand back the phones to the worker at the counter (Picture: Afzal Adam / SWNS)

He tried to make off with more than £1,600 worth of iPhones (Picture: Afzal Adam / SWNS)

The phone shop had installed a button to let shopkeepers lock the door from the counter (Picture: Afzal Adam / SWNS)

Yet he had to embarrassingly walk back to the counter and tell the shop worker his ‘mate outside made me do it’ when the door wouldn’t budge.

And he would have gotten away with the theft if it wasn’t for a sneaky button under the counter that allow staff to lock the doors.

Shop owner Afzal Adam, 52, said he installed the mechanism in 2020 for £250.

He said: ‘With people wearing masks and balaclavas, I was worried about not being able to identify anyone if they did steal from my store.

‘He would have gotten away with £1,600 worth of merchandise, so the mechanism has paid for itself!

‘After I had the owner of another local story come in and ask what mechanism we had as they wanted the same.’

The Phone Market said in an Instagram statement on the day of the attempted theft that it’s hoping to be put in contact with the would-be-crook.

More: News

It said the thief might have been among the countless Brits battered by the cost-of-living crisis, with groceries, food, fuel and energy prices skyrocketing.

‘Times are difficult for many of us at the moment, so if you are struggling to put food on the table, please come and visit us in story to see how we can help,’ the statement said.

‘To those on social media asking why we didn’t “beat him up”, violence is not the answer.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

He was quite literally stopped in his tracks.