A would-be thief on a motorbike tried to steal a TV reporter’s phone right as she was about to go on air, according to the terrified journalist who shared dramatic video of the incident online.
Clara Nery, a Brazilian journalist, was checking her cellphone as she prepared to go on camera when the shocking assault unfolded on Monday.
In the background, a man on a motorbike slowly drives past her before trying to snatch her phone out of her hand in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Nery, a reporter with Brazilian outlet Band Rio, revealed that she was able to get her cellphone back after her would-be thief dropped it.
“It was a real scare to go live, but the important thing is that everything turned out okay!” Nery wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday, accompanying footage of the terrifying mugging.
“Thanks for the messages and support from my coworkers, the Military Police, and the Civil Police,” she went on, adding an appeal to find the wannabe thief.
“Let’s share his face, he wants to be known.”
“In the video, you can see the moment he puts his hand on my phone and takes it from me. Luckily, I was holding on tightly,” she said, as reported by her employer, Band Rio.
“Luckily, and thanks to his lack of skill, I managed to recover the phone. But we already have the security camera footage, the footage from the camera that managed to focus on his face,” she added.
She also noted that the motorcycle’s license plate was covered with a piece of cardboard, Band Rio reported.
She alerted cops, who have assessed the footage and are hunting for the attempted thief, the outlet reported.
“We trust the work of the Military Police and the Civil Police. We have no doubt that he will be found and arrested. It remains to be seen whether, once arrested, his detention will be upheld, as we see many similar cases, but unfortunately, criminals like this are released after just a few days,” she said.
Crime has soared in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state in recent years, according to data from the country’s Public Security Institute.
In particular, cell phone robberies in the city rose by almost 40% between January and July 2024 — the most recently available data — Interlira reports.
