Pickpocket Steals Woman’s Phone, Then Triathlete Chases Him Down (Exclusive)

When traveling, you have to be careful of your surroundings and belongings — a lesson that Elizabeth Lopez-Aguilar learned the hard way.

Lopez-Aguilar, 24, was out celebrating her birthday in London with her boyfriend, Abraham Tahtouh, when they decided to take a nighttime stroll. However, as the Texas native set up her phone to capture the moment and film her outfit, things took a turn for the worse.

“While I was doing this, my boyfriend — a fellow athlete and cyclist — was admiring the cyclists on the path ahead,” Lopez-Aguilar exclusively tells PEOPLE. “It was in that moment when I described where I had purchased my coat that a man in his mid-20s sped past me and snatched my phone.”

However, the pickpocket didn’t expect Lopez-Aguilar to be a triathlete. With six triathlons under her belt, she quickly closed the distance.

“I thought it was a prank at first, but immediately sprang into action and chased after him,” she says.

Her boyfriend also joined the chase and “was able to catch him first.”

“I quickly followed to grab the assailant’s arm and take the phone back,” she tells PEOPLE.

Since the man “did not fight back” and “immediately left” once they recovered the device, the couple “didn’t pursue any legal action.”

Still, she noted that the whole thing was “a bit frightening and adrenaline-inducing.”

“My entire life is on that phone, and as someone who has had her phone taken before, it’s not a good feeling,” she shares. “Getting it back was a relief and rewarding, given we worked together to retrieve it.” 

She captured part of the ordeal on video, which she shared on her TikTok account, and amassed over 7.8 million views. 

“When you get pickpocketed in London but they don’t know you run triathlons in the states,” she captioned the clip.

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Looking back, she says she was “lucky” the person she confronted was “non-violent and did not fight back or have a weapon.”

“In the moment, all I was thinking about was getting my phone, not the grander repercussions that could have followed had the assailant been dangerous,” she admits. “My advice is take precautions, assess the risk and act cautiously, but most importantly, don’t leave your phone or valuables in a compromising position to begin with!”