TWO overconfident pickpockets, who planned to challenge police in a Beijing zoo to catch them, were arrested shortly after they arrived in the city yesterday.

One of the duo from north China's Shanxi Province, identified as Jia, said a had pal told him that almost no pickpocket in the zoo could escape detection because the police used digital video cameras for security inspection and this made theft in the zoo impossible.

Jia and his accomplice, surnamed Xi, bet the friend -- who was released last month after a year's imprisonment for theft in the zoo -- that that they would be able to steal in the zoo without being caught.

However, their thieving had been recorded by the zoo police and when the pair tried to steal another mobile phone from a female tourist after 3pm, they were grabbed by three plainclothes detectives.

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