Posted on April 10, 2014

Woman Is Mugged on Live TV in Brazil . . . As She Is Being Interviewed About the Lack of Police

Chris Pleasance, Daily Mail (London), April 10, 2014

A Brazilian woman has been mugged on live TV in Rio de Janeiro while giving an interview about the high crime rate in the area.

The woman, whose name is not given, was complaining about the lack of police in broad daylight yesterday when a thief attempted to snatch her gold necklace.

While the would-be criminal did not get away with the jewellery, he did break the fragile gold chain in his attempt before fleeing across the road into oncoming traffic.

The interviewer, working for RJTV, attempts to chase the failed thief down, but the petty criminal is too fast for him.

Rio is a city known worldwide for its high crime rate, especially in the nearly-1,000 favelas outside the main city where gang and drug-related crime is rife.

In August alone last year there were 406 killings in the city and surrounding state, an increase of 40 per cent on the year before.

There were also 629 robberies on public transport just in August , while muggings soared by nearly 40 per cent as well.

The video will serve as yet another warning to any football fans travelling to the city this summer for the World Cup to be on their guard.

Recently armed soldiers backed up by helicopters and armoured vehicles stormed one of Brazil’s largest favelas, Complexo da Mare, in what was thought to be an attempted clean-up ahead of the sporting competition.

Roughly 1,400 soldiers and police officers patrolled the streets in a show of force last month in an attempt to bring gang violence in the impoverished area down.