Antwerp police investigate distraction theft of two luxury watches near Botanic Sanctuary

Antwerp police are investigating two men who allegedly stole a Rolex from hotel guest Nico Jasica near Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp shortly before 2am on Saturday, 15 August, using an apparently friendly dance to distract him. Jasica, a 36-year-old business owner from Schilde, also reported the disappearance of a Cartier watch carried in his wife’s handbag. No suspect had been reported arrested when the case became public on 17 August.

The incident matters most immediately to residents and visitors in central Antwerpen because it illustrates how unobtrusively a practised pickpocketing team can operate. There was no reported violence: the crucial contact was presented as a sociable exchange outside a prominent five-star hotel in the Leopoldstraat. That makes the encounter easy to misread until the thieves and the valuables are gone.

Jasica told VRT NWS and Het Nieuwsblad that he and his wife were returning to the hotel after celebrating her birthday when two men approached and asked for a light. One then took hold of him and began dancing, ostensibly as a gesture of thanks. Jasica felt uncomfortable and moved towards the hotel, but only noticed in his room that his Rolex Datejust 41 was no longer on his wrist.

Hotel staff contacted the police after the couple reported the theft. According to Jasica’s account in Het Nieuwsblad, investigators quickly reviewed surveillance images, traced a taxi used by the men and followed their route towards the area around Antwerpen-Centraal and Mediaplein. Police spokesperson Kim Bastiaens confirmed to the newspaper that officers were mapping the available camera footage and investigating the suspects. The police have not publicly identified the men, disclosed evidence about their nationality or announced an arrest.

A second loss emerged later. Jasica said that a Cartier watch placed in his wife’s handbag was also missing. The available reporting does not establish precisely when or how that watch was taken, while the value of neither watch has been independently confirmed. Surveillance footage described by Het Nieuwsblad reportedly records the physical distraction and shows one fleeing man dropping an object resembling a watch, but police have not said whether any stolen property was recovered.

The dance was unusual as theatre, not as technique. Antwerp police documented an almost identical method in June 2023, when suspects greeted watch-wearers by holding the wrist, placed a leg between the victim’s legs and made dancing movements while releasing the clasp with the other hand. Officers then arrested three suspects linked to several luxury-watch thefts and reported a combined haul of €35,000. That earlier case does not prove any connection to the Botanic Sanctuary investigation, but it shows that the manoeuvre is known locally and can be executed by coordinated teams.

There is also a wider policing dimension, although this remains fundamentally an Antwerp crime story rather than an EU-institutional one. In December 2023, Antwerp police said mobile pickpocketing groups were operating across several cities and that Belgian and Dutch forces had expanded joint operations along the Amsterdam–Brussels rail corridor. Nothing published so far establishes that the men sought in the present case belonged to such a group or crossed a border. The comparison explains why investigators may examine travel and camera records beyond the immediate hotel district without making assumptions about the suspects’ origins.

Jasica’s emphasis is public awareness: he told Het Nieuwsblad that he shared his experience so others would realise such thieves were active. The police position is necessarily narrower and evidence-led: Bastiaens confirmed an investigation and the collection of camera images, without endorsing speculation about who the men are. Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp has not been publicly accused of wrongdoing, and the reported encounter occurred near the hotel and an adjoining entrance rather than being described as a breach of a guest room.

Investigators must now determine the suspects’ identities, establish how both watches disappeared and decide whether images should be released publicly. Until then, the practical lesson is modest but useful: unexpected physical contact can be an instrument of distraction, even when it appears playful. Anyone facing an immediate threat should call 112; Antwerp police direct non-urgent reports and information to their 24-hour Blue Line on 0800 123 12.