The Spectacular Thefts of Apollo Robbins, Pickpocket

Robbins, who is thirty-eight and lives in Las Vegas, is a peculiar variety-arts hybrid, known in the trade as a theatrical pickpocket. Among his peers, he is widely 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. Robbins works smoothly and invisibly, with a diffident charm that belies his talent for larceny.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_green?currentPage=all&src=longreads