(Reuters) - A video of a thief stealing a mobile phone and being run over by a bus as he flees features a Brazilian boy, not a North African migrant as claimed on social media.
The footage, showing the robbery and subsequent collision, was shared on Facebook by UK-based users with the caption: “North African migrant snatches a pensioner's phone and is met by instant karma.”
But public security officials in Sao Paulo - where the incident happened on Friday, July 19, 2024 - said in a phone call with Reuters the boy was Brazilian.
A thief hit by bus was Brazilian, not a North African migrant as claimed on social media.
“A 17-year-old teenager died after stealing from a 71-year-old elderly man and being run over while fleeing, on Rua Domingos Rodrigues, in the Lapa neighbourhood, south of the capital,” the Public Security Secretariat of Sao Paulo’s government added in an email to Reuters.
“Military police were called to respond to a collision. At the time, the police found that the young man took an elderly man's cell phone and was run over by a bus as he fled, which was unable to stop in time.”
Several media outlets in Brazil - including CBN, CNN, and G1, - reported the incident. None of them mentioned a “North African migrant”.
Sao Paulo Transporte said the collision with the bus happened on Rua Afonso Sardinha around 11 a.m. (1400 GMT) on July 19, 2024.
A still from the video is consistent with a green building seen at the junction of Rua Domingos Rodrigues and Rua Afonso Sardinha on Google Street View . The corrugated iron roof, street furniture, shop canopy and trees are also the same in both images.