Man Steals Reporter's Phone, Has Face Seen by Millions

A Cairo-area reporter had his phone grabbed from his hands by a thief on a motorbike, but it wasn't exactly the perfect crime—the reporter had been livestreaming a broadcast at the time, and the thief's face was seen by millions. The Youm7 news site says its reporter, Mahmoud Ragheb, was on a bridge in the city of Shubra Al-Khaimah when his phone was taken, the BBC reports. Ragheb had been reporting on the aftermath of an earthquake when viewers suddenly saw the face of the thief, who was smoking a cigarette and looking back nervously as he sped away from the scene. The phone's camera was pointing toward the man during the getaway and it wasn't switched off until minutes later.

Some 20,000 people were watching the livestream at the time, and millions more viewed video of the theft on the site's Facebook page. Viewers joked that the man shouldn't have bothered looking behind him because "the whole world is watching you." Officials from Egypt's Ministry of Interior said the man, identified using "modern technology," was arrested hours after the theft, the Guardian reports. Officials said the unemployed man admitted to the crime and told police he'd sold the phone to a trader. (More Egypt stories.)