A phone thief who pretended to be disabled as part of an act that allowed him to steal several cell phones in the Albufeira area was arrested on Sunday night (August 7).
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, the man is a 22-year-old Romanian.
He was caught trying to steal a phone at a snack bar in Montechoro at around 9.45pm.
“The man entered the snack bar limping and with a few flyers in his hand. He put the flyers where the snack bar’s owner had put her phone, and he tried to swipe it away. But he was unlucky, the phone fell and the GNR agents realised what was going on,” a source from Faro’s GNR command told CM.
Shortly before he was arrested, the young man had apparently stolen another phone from a nearby restaurant using the same strategy.
Police believed he used it to steal several other phones in the area.
An investigation is ongoing, but the man has apparently been identified by several victims of local phone thefts.
