In recent days, a thief was arrested by the Federal Police after being warned by security cameras after trying to steal a passenger's cell phone on a Sarmiento Line train. This is a “kangaroo” robbery, a recurrent criminal maneuver at railway stations. The passenger turned out to be, precisely, a PFA agent dressed in civilian clothes.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, March 9, around 1 in the morning, at the station of the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores on the Sarmiento line. The criminal, who was on the platform, introduced his body through the window of one of the formations that was being detained and snatched the cell phone from the hand of a man traveling in the first seat.
At that time, the victim got off the train that had not yet started and began to chase the thief, who was speeding through the station premises.
By that time, the sequence of the robbery and flight had already been warned by the staff of the Trains Seguros Command, which belongs to Trenes Argentinos, who informed the station's police personnel to intervene.
After a brief chase, the assailant was stopped by the troops and the phone recovered and returned to its owner. The thief, who was affected in a case led by Judge Alejandra Mercedes of the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 55, was transferred to the Sarmiento Division of the Federal Police.
Last January, a similar sequence went viral in an unusual video. In that image, you could see how a thief snatched the cell phone from a City Police officer who was distracted by his gaze on the screen through the window of a train car on the Rock Line.
In the video you can see how when the train starts to leave the station, the criminal approaches and inserts his arm through the window very quickly. Thus, in an outburst, he takes the mobile phone out of his hands to cash, which is almost without reaction.
In the face of the robbery, the officer stops and looks out the window, but since the train had already started and the doors were closed, he could not get off. However, despite the great impact of the video, the date of the incident could not be specified because the cash did not report the theft.
Nor is it the first time that an assault has been deterred in the Sarmiento train formations thanks to the camera system. Last November, an armed robber who attempted to assault a group of passengers on the Sarmiento train was arrested at Morón station after being warned by personnel of the Argentine Train Monitoring Centre, which notified 911.
The episode occurred on a Monday morning at 6:45 in the morning, when the criminal, who had boarded the train and had sat next to another passenger, stood up and tried to rob a woman who was sitting a few seats ahead, threatening her with the gun.
At that time, other passengers who witnessed his action, pushed him and prevented the offender from concluding the robbery. Scared away from the wagon, then, the thief began to walk to change cars. On the way, he also took off his jacket to avoid being recognized, but by then he had already been seen.
At that time, train prevention personnel approached the subject to reduce him and, minutes later, at Morón station, officers of the National Gendarmerie arrested the thief, handcuffed him, got him off the train and transferred him to Police Station No. 1 in Morón, where he was detained with a case led by prosecutor Claudio Oviedo, holder of UFI No. 5 of Morón.
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