Egyptian man accidentally livestreams his face while stealing journalist’s phone

An Egyptian man who unknowingly livestreamed his face to thousands of viewers with a phone he reportedly stole from a journalist was nabbed by authorities who probably faced little challenges in identifying and locating him.

Social media users who viewed the incident found some comic relief in the young man’s demeanor as he was labeled “the coolest thief in Egypt”, BBC reported. The thief was riding a motorbike when he reportedly snatched Mahmoud Ragheb’s phone. And at the time of the theft, Ragheb was on social media livestreaming a report for local news outlet Youm7.

Although the unnamed thief successfully made away with the phone, the livestream was still playing, and his face was revealed to the viewers as he was speeding away with a cigarette in his mouth.

The theft reportedly occurred on a bridge in the Egyptian city of Shubra Al-Khaimah. Ragheb was said to be reporting a story on the after-effects of a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that had struck some parts of the North African nation.

The thief allegedly snatched Ragheb’s phone while he was using the device to livestream the report on social media. Moments after the phone’s camera became stable after the theft, the suspect could be seen smoking a cigarette and looking back to see if he was being chased.

Over 20,000 people were viewing the livestream on Facebook at the time of the theft, BBC reported. The video has, however, since been viewed over 6.2 million times in the space of over 24 hours. It has also amassed over 40,000 comments.

Some social media users reacted to the video on a lighter note, with one user wondering why the thief bothered to look back while “the whole world is watching you.”

The country’s Ministry of Interior on Tuesday announced the suspect in question had been arrested. But the ministry said the unemployed thief had sold the phone.