Rio police in ‘Money Heist’ and Jason masks apprehend Carnival phone thieves

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro police officers kitted themselves out as thieves from the series “Money Heist” and as Jason Voorhees from the “Friday the 13th” horror movie franchise to blend in with crowds celebrating Carnival and catch criminals stealing cellphones.

Carnival officially kicked off on Friday in Rio, and for many revelers participating in the megalopolis’ raucous, dazzling street parties, one of the biggest concerns is holding on to their phones — as thefts are all too common.

To tackle this phenomenon, officers in the Santa Teresa neighborhood Friday donned costumes to fly under thieves’ radar. The undercover agents noticed a woman snatching a cellphone from someone’s hand, followed her and saw her hand the device to an accomplice, Rio’s civil police said in a statement Saturday.

Police arrested the pair and found five cellphones in their possession.

That wasn’t the first time Brazilian police officers wearing costumes have sought to mingle with the crowds during festivities to catch wrongdoers.

Last Sunday, police officers dressed as characters from “Ghostbusters” caught a woman with 12 cellphones stolen in downtown Sao Paulo. A day prior, officers in alien outfits caught a man with three phones hidden under his clothing.

Cellphone thefts have declined overall in Brazil, according to the 2025 annual report by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety think-tank. They dropped from approximately 980,000 per year in 2022 to some 850,000 in 2024.

But fear of both armed robberies and discreet pocketing of cellphones remains high, and opinion polls consistently show that violence and crime are Brazilians’ main concern.