Caught on camera: Motorbike thief tries to snatch reporter’s phone moments before live coverage

Clara Nery also made a public appeal to help identify the assailant, whose face was partially visible in the video.

Clara Nery, a reporter for Brazilian television network Band Rio, narrowly escaped a robbery attempt while preparing for a live broadcast from the streets of Rio de Janeiro — with the entire incident captured on camera.

As the journalist stood ready to go on air, a man on a motorcycle sped past and attempted to snatch her mobile phone directly from her hands. The footage clearly showed the moment the perpetrator reached out for the device. "In the video, you can see the moment he puts his hand on my phone and takes it from me. Luckily, I was holding on tightly,” Nery said, as reported by Band Rio.

The man fled the scene immediately after the failed attempt. Fortunately, Nery was able to retain possession of her phone and escaped the situation physically unharmed.

“It was a real scare to go live,” she later wrote in a post on Instagram. “But the important thing is that everything turned out okay!”

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Expressing gratitude for the support she received following the incident, Nery added: “Thanks for the messages and support from my coworkers, the Military Police, and the Civil Police.”

She also made a public appeal to help identify the assailant, whose face was partially visible in the video that has since gone viral. “Let’s share his face, he wants to be known,” she urged in the same Instagram post.

The attempted robbery comes amid a troubling rise in mobile phone thefts across the city. According to data from the Rio de Janeiro Public Security Institute, phone thefts surged by 27 percent in June 2025 compared to the same month in 2024. A total of 2,313 phones were reported stolen in June 2025, a significant jump from 1,808 recorded cases the previous year.