Shocking surveillance footage shows the moment a 17-year-old boy is killed after being hit by a bus while trying to steal an older man’s mobile phone.
The teenager walked up to the 71-year-old man on a street corner in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo last Friday while he was on the phone.
The victim appeared as he was about to cross the street, when the teenager suddenly grabbed his cell phone and ran away.
A few seconds passed after the bus crossed the intersection and hit the unsuspecting perpetrator, after which the bus immediately came to a stop.
The teenager, whose name has not been released, was rushed to hospital in Brasilândia, where he later died from the injuries he sustained.
A 17-year-old boy was caught on camera stealing a 71-year-old man’s cell phone on a street corner seconds before a bus ran him over as he tried to flee in São Paulo, Brazil, last Friday.
The teenager was trapped under the bus moments after he was hit as he tried to flee after stealing a 71-year-old man’s mobile phone in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo on Friday.
Pedro Garbin, 38, told Brazilian news outlet Metropoles that the boy was able to climb out from under the bus without help.
“(He) rolled up the sidewalk. He was laying down, talking, moving,” the businessman said.
Gabriel Silva, 20, was cutting a customer’s hair in a barbershop and was shocked when the bus hit the teenager.
“I heard a loud noise and I ran straight into the street,” he said. “(He) was lying on the ground in agony.”
A 17-year-old was hit by a bus and later died as he tried to flee through a Brazilian street after he was caught on camera stealing a 71-year-old man’s cell phone last Friday
The teenager (seen above second from right) didn’t see the bus approaching the intersection when he tried to run away after stealing an older man’s cell phone
According to the annual report published last Wednesday by the Brazilian Security Forum, at least 158,150 thefts and 137,891 mobile phone robberies were reported in the state of São Paulo in 2023.
Crime figures show that in São Paulo, the capital, an average of 1,781.6 mobile phones per 100,000 inhabitants have been stolen or robbed.
A total of 937,294 mobile phones were stolen or robbed throughout Brazil last year, an average of 107 times per hour.
Samira Bueno, director of the Brazilian Security Forum, told Brazilian news channel G1 that the increase in mobile phone thefts and robberies marks a “profound change in the dynamics of property crime” in the South American country.
“It was already a trend, but with the decline in the number of people and the digitalization of banking in general, both theft and fraud with mobile phones are becoming more and more accessible, because your whole life is on your mobile phone,” Bueno said.
“Sometimes it’s not just your life, it’s your family’s life. It’s pictures, it’s other people’s contacts. This reveals a change in patterns.”