The woman who had her laptop stolen by a moped rider while sitting in an Archway cafe has spoken of her shock, saying she had already moved seats because she was worried about thieves.

The victim, a special needs teacher from Crouch End who asked not to be named, told the Gazette she was preparing for a job interview the next day when her Macbook Air was swiped in Junction Road cafe Bread and Bean on Tuesday.

She said: “It was like something out of a film. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.

“I do try and be private when I use my phone and ironically I’d been sitting right by the door and thought I shouldn’t be by this door because it’s unsafe, so I moved.

“It was rapid, it was four seconds. You can see me in the footage, I was like: ‘What’s going on?’ It’s like when you see a kid’s sweets being taken off them.

“People were aghast. I looked around and everybody had their mouths wide open. There’s nothing anyone could have done. Police said these kids are carrying acid and that they caught a group the other day with machetes.”

Following the snatch, the woman had to start her interview preparation all over again. She’s still waiting to hear whether she got the job, but is under no illusions about her laptop, which was not insured.

She also said she did not know the video of the theft, first published by the Gazette, had gone viral until she popped into a cafe in Crouch End yesterday morning.

“They were talking about it behind the counter,” she explained. “I said: ‘How do you know about this?’ They said: ‘It was on BBC news this morning.’

“I feel quite hard done by.

“I chose to go there to support an independent cafe. What’s annoying me is they said this had happened before. If there was a [warning] sign in the first place, I wouldn’t have sat there.”

Cafe owner Bona Sadiku said: “Everybody is a victim. We have been attacked twice. It’s about how we can stop this happening now.”