Cell phone thief in Havana used scissors to threaten his victims.

A cell phone thief who used scissors to threaten his victims and rob them was arrested by the Police in 10 de Octubre, Havana, the previous week.

One of the assaults occurred in the afternoon of October 3, when the criminal snatched two mobile phones from their owners after intimidating them with scissors, according to the account on Facebook by "El Cubano Fiel," an official profile linked to the Ministry of the Interior.

The publication specified that people who were playing in the sports area located in Porvenir between Santa Catalina and Milagros Este, in the Acosta neighborhood of the 10th of October municipality, “witnessed a robbery at knifepoint carried out by a criminal who took the mobile phones from two boys passing by”.

According to "El Cubano Fiel," the robbery occurred around two in the afternoon, and the wrongdoer fled the scene but was caught by a police patrol that apprehended him and recovered the two phones.

The officers identified the victims of the assault and took the thief into custody at the Aguilera police unit, according to the official account of the events.

The theft of cell phones, whether on the street, in public transport, and even inside homes, has become a recurring crime amid the wave of crime that has hit Cuba in recent years.

Reports on social media indicate multiple incidents of this type in various cities across the country, and how the population has decided to take matters into their own hands to capture the assailants, who are then handed over to the authorities.

Elderly people are often frequent victims of assaults and other crimes. In the Alamar neighborhood, in East Havana, a thief threw a 72-year-old man to the ground and stole his cellphone; while another, in the La Cuevita neighborhood, in San Miguel del Padrón, took a mobile phone from the purse of an elderly woman and fled. Both were caught and later arrested by police officers.

In June, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to steal a phone from its owner on a bus traveling along Avenida Boyeros and Calzada del Cerro. After being caught, the pickpocket pulled out a knife and tried to escape, but he was unsuccessful because the driver stopped the bus and kept the doors closed.