This is the moment a quick-thinking female Russian tourist took down a phone-snatcher in Argentina. Video posted by journalist Gonzalo Benitez shows the incident on November 9 when two thieves snuck up on the 33-year-old woman while she was on a bike waiting at a junction in the capital Buenos Aires. As they grab her device, she manages to wrestle one of them off the bike and hold him until Good Samaritans rush to her aid and help restrain him until the police arrive. Officers were also able to trace the offender who fled on the bike and discovered 10 cell phones at the property where he was arrested.
This is somewhat unconfirmed information but I became privy to it from someone I trust. He told me they don’t care about the phone itself, but its contents. After the phone is snatched they need to rush to deliver it to someone who does the cracking. They pay the snatcher some sum (I heard $100-$200) if they deliver the phone before it gets bricked and then they proceed to steal all the finances they can from it. They either buy crypto and transfer it or just send the money to a dummy bank account that they withdraw from. Another rumor I heard is that they have insiders who do the phone unlocking for them and then those phones get shipped to China where there’s a black market for western phones as they’re not locked down like the domestic versions. Again, none of this is confirmed with a verified source, but it sort of makes sense when you think about it, as even parts in modern phones are serialized, so selling phones for parts only isn’t really an option anymore.