Egyptian arrested after transmitting his face during a robbery

Egyptian social media users hailed a man who inadvertently passed his face on to thousands of people while stealing a reporter’s phone as “Egypt’s coolest thief”.

Mahmoud Ragheb, a reporter for the Youm7 news site, was broadcasting a report live on social media when the thief drove by and seized his phone.

The broadcast then revealed the young thief’s face as he sped away from the scene smoking a cigarette.

The police have since announced his arrest.

According to Youm7, the accident occurred on a bridge in Egypt’s fourth largest city, Shubra Al-Khaimah, where Ragheb was recounting the aftermath of a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that shook parts of Egypt.

Mr. Ragheb was filming the bridge when his phone was brutally snatched from his hands by the nameless thief. Once the camera stopped shaking, it revealed the face of a young man smoking a cigarette and nervously checking behind him to see if anyone was in pursuit.

However, there was little sympathy for the plight of the intrepid journalist, with most social media users focusing on the thief’s relaxed behavior as he picked up the phone and continued to pull his cigarette as he ran away.

One user commented that they were “dead with laughter”, while another asked why the man bothered to look back while “the whole world is watching you”.

More than 20,000 people were watching the live stream when the theft occurred, and according to data on Facebook, the video has since garnered over 6.2 million views and 45,000 comments in just over 24 hours.

Unfortunately for the thief, conveying his face in this way made it relatively easy for authorities to track him down. The Interior Ministry announced last night that it had arrested him.

In a statement, the ministry said the man was “out of work” and that he has since sold the stolen cell phone to a trader.