Do you believe in magic? Na’h, me neither. That’s why I don’t get invited to my friends’ kids’ birthday parties anymore. “The rabbit’s still in the hat!” “The card’s under the table!” “The quarter’s up his nose!” But apparently, knowing magic can be useful. Take for instance this incident in which a really dumb criminal attempts to rob my close personal friend David Copperfield…

MIAMI (AFP) - Magician David Copperfield was assaulted after a show in West Palm Beach, Florida, last weekend, but with a little sleight of hand he managed to hold on to his belongings, reports said.

Four young men in a vehicle approached the magician and two female companions Sunday, and at gunpoint stole cash from one of the women and a wallet and cellular phone from the other woman, a West Palm Beach police report said.

When one thief tried to snatch Copperfield’s wallet, he used an old trick, pulling out his trouser pockets as if they were empty when in fact they held his wallet, cell phone and passport, The Palm Beach Post reported.

“Call it reverse pickpocketing. I had a gun pointed at my head from 6 inches away,” he told the newspaper. “I’m pretty good under pressure. That’s my job.”

The magician and his friends later identified the thieves, police said.

After they were identified, they disappeared out of the lineup in a puff of white smoke and reappeared in their jail cells.

I have to say that I’ve seen Copperfield do a lot of amazing things: disappear in the Grand Canyon, make the Statue of Liberty disappear, marry Claudia Schiffer.

But hiding his wallet and cell phone from a thief is, by far, the most impressive trick yet. The next time he gets robbed, he said his next trick will be pulling a tazer out of a hat.