A pickpocket is arrested after stealing a cellphone from an elderly woman in Havana.

A man was captured by several people and handed over to the Police after stealing a mobile phone from an elderly woman in the La Cuevita neighborhood, in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana.

The alleged thief, taking advantage of the fact that the victim was an elderly person, stole the cellphone from her bag and fled the scene, according to a report from the profile El Cubano Fiel, a Facebook page linked to the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) of Cuba.

"Participants in the arrest of a pickpocket, which took place in La Cuevita, San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, told us that the criminal, with the stealth characteristic of pickpockets (who seem like anesthetists), reached into the woman's bag and took out a mobile phone," the publication reported.

Once he had the cell phone in his possession, the man "took off running," but "when his victim realized the theft, she began to scream 'catch him, catch him,' and several people from the area chased after the criminal, managing to capture him and hand him over to the Police Sector Chief."

The publication shows a photo of the alleged criminal, although it does not identify him by name.

Events like this happen daily in Havana and other Cuban cities, as part of a rising trend of crime that is reported by citizens on social media. Thefts, assaults, murders, and other crimes are reported day by day, highlighting the climate of violence and insecurity that has prevailed in the country in recent times.

A little more than a week ago, two men were arrested after attempting to steal a cellphone from a young man while he was getting onto a P3 bus in 10 de Octubre, Havana.

A few days later, a video showed the moment when a cellphone thief in Santiago de Cuba was captured by the neighbors, who caught him trying to snatch a phone from a young girl. An angry crowd dragged him down the street and several people beat him until they took him to the nearest police station.

Residents of a house in the municipality of Urbano Noris, in Holguín, experienced moments of tension at the end of September when three thieves entered the house to rob, threatened them with knives, and tied them up to carry out their misdeeds. The criminals stole "more than 19,000 pesos, cell phones, clothing, a gold chain, a television, and even a private ETZ motorcycle."

In June, a man who tried to steal a phone from its owner on a bus traveling along Avenida Boyeros and Calzada del Cerro was sentenced to 10 years in prison. When he was discovered, the pickpocket pulled out a knife to try to escape, but he did not succeed, as the driver had stopped the bus and locked the doors.