Three robbery suspects were arrested after a man had his phone taken before being forced to buy it back.
Officers were called to Talbot Street, Nottingham city centre, following reports the victim had been threatened with a knife.
He was at that point forced to hand over his phone by three people, who then ordered him to transfer them money on the spot to get it back.
The man wasn’t harmed and had his phone returned to him during the incident, which happened around 3am on Tuesday (29 September).
Having been alerted minutes later, police scoured available CCTV and quickly managed to locate three people matching the descriptions of the suspects.
Following a brief foot chase, response officers managed to catch up with and detain each of the three suspects at the other side of the city centre, in Hockley.
The three men – aged 22, 28 and 30 – were all subsequently arrested on suspicion of robbery.
Detective Sergeant Christophe Sutton, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“This would’ve no doubt been a very scary experience for the victim, who was robbed of his phone after being threatened with violence.
“Having had his property taken, he was then forced on the spot to transfer money over to those responsible in order to get it back.
“Thanks to our officers acting as swiftly as they did by utilising available CCTV, we were ultimately able to track down and detain three suspects in rapid time.
“Robbery is a horrible offence, so we hope our response to this incident has provided some reassurance to the public on just how seriously we take reports of this nature.”
