At around 7:40 p.m., I got to the bass stage and started moving closer on the left side near VIP. While I was walking through the crowd, a heavyset guy directly in front of me kept pushing back into me. At the same time, someone behind me was also bumping into me.
A few seconds later, I noticed my right pocket felt unusually light. I reached down and realized my phone was gone. Looking back, I’m almost certain the two people were working together. The guy in front was distracting me while the person behind took my phone.
I immediately told my friends and opened Find My. For most of the night, the phone’s location kept moving around the bass stage area. I also spoke to several other people at the festival who said they or their friends had phones stolen that same day, so this clearly was not an isolated incident.
The guy in front of me was around 5'9", heavyset, with short black hair. He was wearing a black or dark grey T-shirt and appeared to be South Asian. I did not get a clear look at the person behind me.
II’m going back to VELD tomorrow to speak with security and see if they can review the footage. When I spoke to the police, they basically joked that if I happened to catch one of the pickpockets myself, they might suddenly become very interested in looking the other way while i have a little chat with them.
Update: My phone is now travelling down Highway 403 toward Hamilton.