“My phone has been stolen twice,” explains an employee at a nail shop in Barcelona. One of the tourists who is passing through the city listens attentively. “I was riding a bicycle, I couldn’t do anything,” she adds, about the last tug that left her again without one of those devices that govern the lives of most people. The mobile phone is the most stolen object on the streets of Catalonia, with 192 reports on average per day, according to data from the Mossos d’Esquadra, more than half in the Catalan capital. In most cases, the person does not even realize it, and only a small percentage (18%) are robbed violently. The figure does not include the terminals that thieves take when they enter a house.
Everyone is dedicated to cell phone theft, police sources explain. From the opportunist, who takes advantage of the moment and then gives the phone to whoever he can, with minimal ability to unlock it, to professional criminal groups. In one of their last operations, the Mossos d’Esquadra arrested seven people who used three floors as a reception point. Inside the homes located in Barcelona, the Catalan police found 224 phones, which they suspect were taken from their legitimate owners through theft or violent robberies. In that case, the investigations draw a route that usually ends in Morocco, where phones have a new life.
The data indicates that mobile phones, converted into smartphone and with prices that do not stop increasing, they have long been a coveted object. In 2019, the pre-pandemic stage, thefts peaked, with 236 reports per day. Covid brought everything to a screeching halt, including crime, and since then, little by little, normality has returned. For statistical purposes, the Catalan police consider 2023 as the first normal year. From January to August, the data indicates that 46,089 thefts were reported, 18.8% less than the same period in 2019, but 4.4% more compared to 2022. 80% (37,688) were stolen without the person realized it, due to carelessness, or as a result of the skill of thieves. The rest are violent robberies (8,401), with about 35 reports a day.
Many of the thieves have found their best ally in the scooters and bike lanes of Barcelona. Stealthily, they approach the person who has the phone in their hand, or in their ear, snatch it away with hardly any room for reaction, and flee at full speed until they get lost in the city. Police sources explain that the experts who operate on public transport still persist, with situations in which the victim does not realize that they have been robbed until the headphones that were connected to the device stop playing Spotify music because the cell phone is no longer playing. It’s too far away. There are even those who wait for the beep of the car doors closing to snatch the phone from their victim’s hands and jump off the train in time, which departs with the legitimate owner, distraught, trying to understand what has happened.
The Mossos d’Esquadra have reinforced the fight against repeat thieves, many of them dedicated to stealing mobile phones, with specific plans. Last year, 4.9% more perpetrators of violent mobile thefts were arrested (787) than in 2019, despite the fact that crime decreased by 26% in that same period. Regarding thefts, arrests remained stable compared to pre-pandemic (773, 1.4% more) when there were 17% more complaints, and have increased very notably compared to last year, with 27 .8% of detainees (773) compared to 5.3% more complaints.
The receivers are another of the key elements in the framework. In an operation last year, the Civil Guard recovered more than 1,000 stolen mobile phones, ready to be sent to Morocco. The origin of the investigation was a vehicle in the port of Tarifa (Cádiz) that was about to embark to the neighboring country. During the investigation, the agents discovered an industrial warehouse, with hundreds of phones on pallets, which came from various Spanish locations, including Barcelona. Police sources assure that they have also detected much less sophisticated processes, in which the mobile phone ends up for sale in Wallapop, or in mobile phone stores.
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When the husband of the tourist who is grooming herself in a nail shop in Barcelona picks her up, she tells him everything she has heard about security in Barcelona, which is not far from what happens in other large European cities. He confirms that they have already been warned. “We have left everything at the hotel. No jewelry, no watches, no anything,” she says. To which she objects: “Yes, but on the street it is inevitable to go with your cell phone, looking at Google Maps to get to places.”
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