WITH the loosening of restrictions on mobility of minors, the police in Cebu City have recorded cases of cell phone theft carried out by teenagers .
One phone-snatching incident involving two boys, aged 16 and 17, on Tuesday night, Nov. 9, 2021, went viral online after it was captured by the dashcam of a passing vehicle.
The victim was a passenger seated on a bus going to the southern part of Cebu.
The video footage shows a stationary bus as it had stopped for a traffic light at the corner of V. Rama Ave. and N. Bacalso Ave. Two teenage boys later cross the street. When the traffic lights turn green (go signal), the boys walk back towards the bus and one of them snatches the phone of the passenger through an open window.
A team from the Sawang Calero Police Station, after learning about the incident, conducted a follow-up operation. They identified the boys as their faces were clearly seen in the dashcam footage, and they also had past jail records because of their involvement in petty theft.
Sawang Calero Police Chief Eraño Regidor said they rescued the minors from their homes, and they recovered the victim’s cell phone after the two confessed where they had sold the device.
The teenagers were turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development Central Visayas.
The Cebu City Police Office has ordered its lower units to patrol N. Bacalso Ave., especially the vicinity of the Cebu South Bus Terminal, where incidents of cell phone snatching often occur. (AYB / KAL)