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Journalism of Courage
From metros to trains to footpaths, phone snatching has become a menace in India. Now, a video showing a man snatching a phone from a girl sitting by the window has gone viral on X.
The viral clip, which has already amassed over 121,07,000 views, begins with the “thief” catching hold of the phone being used by a girl sitting by the window. The man then uses both his hands to pull the phone from the girl’s hand while the child screams, trying to alert her mother. There’s another girl in the video, looking puzzled. “Chhod mera phone (Leave my phone),” the girl says while fighting the man. “Mera phone le gaya (He took away my phone),” the girl says as she loses her grip on the phone.
Sharing the video, an X user wrote in Hindi what roughly translates to, “Be careful while boarding the train. See how he snatched the phone from the girl through the window and ran away!! Incidents of phone theft have surged.”
Watch the viral video here:
On closer inspection, however, the video appears staged. The phone was snatched away by the girl’s father or a relative to teach the child a lesson about possible thefts. The girl calls for her mother, who is possibly recording the video. The man snatching the phone can be seen smiling, and the other girl in the scene doesn’t scream for help because she knows the man.
Despite the authenticity of the video, the clip has gone viral, prompting a sea of reactions. A user wrote, “It is important to be very careful in such places.” Another user commented, “Why isn’t there proper surveillance at train stations? This is unacceptable,” a second user said. “This looks staged, but if it’s real, it’s truly scary,” another user wrote.
In January, a video of a man trying to snatch a mobile phone from a passenger train in Bihar caused a stir on social media. The footage showed the passengers nabbing the thief and keeping him hanging from the moving train.
