Nahuel Gallotta
08/24/2021 4:54 PM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 08/24/2021 4:54 PM
It is not a square, nor is it a rectangle, nor is it an obtuse triangle.
The route described by the statistics of the thefts of motorcycle jets in Palermo does not resemble any geometric figure.
Its limits are Avenida Santa Fe, Coronel Díaz, Honduras, Scalabrini Ortiz, Niceto Vega and Ángel Carranza.
"
It is the area that concentrates the highest number of motorcycle thefts
. 59% of the neighborhood's cases were registered between those streets," says Nelson Durisotti, president of the Recoleta Association and coordinator of the Crime Map of the City of Buenos Aires , which is carried out based on complaints from your neighbors.
The numbers correspond to the period between January 1, 2021 and June 30.
Throughout the City of Buenos Aires, reports of motorcycle jets reached 804 cases.
The corner of Honduras and Medrano, in Palermo.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll
Commune 1 (made up of Retiro, San Nicolás, Puerto Madero, San Telmo, Monserrat and Constitución) tops the list, with 92 complaints.
It is followed by Commune 5 (Boedo and Almagro), with 86 robberies.
Comuna 14 is in third place, with 80 cases.
And here is the clarification: Commune 14 is limited to the Palermo neighborhood, which is the largest in the city.
So if the list were made by neighborhoods (and not by communes), Palermo ranks first.
Behind come Almagro (46) and Boedo (40).
The rest do not exceed 20 complaints.
The official numbers
According to the Buenos Aires Ministry of Justice and Security, during 2020 the crime of motorcycle jets in Commune 14
decreased by 73% compared to 2019
, when there were no restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic: there were 227 cases, against 828.
In the January-July 2021 period, 138 robberies were recorded under this modality in Commune 14, against the 680 that occurred in the same period of 2019.
Arrest of motorcycle jets in Palermo.
Across the City, according to official figures, they fell 60% in 2020, with 3,734 incidents, the lowest figure since the implementation of the Crime Map, compared to 9,360 in 2019.
In a
Clarín
tour of
the area, neighbors and merchants affirmed that, practically, the motochorro modality is the only one that is heard and that they know.
It is not about gangs, but about "robbery couples":
a pilot
(the one who drives) and
a "bajador"
(the companion, who goes down and snatches some object).
There are cases of assaults on customers who were having lunch, a snack or dinner in bars and restaurants.
Also, from neighbors or people who were passing by and were surprised while walking.
Always in the same way: the "downloader" appears by surprise, snatches the cell phone or the wallet and the pilot is up to date with the situation.
Sometimes on the sidewalk and sometimes on the street.
The facts that have motorists as victims are also not lacking.
They usually occur at a traffic light outage.
The driver or passenger picks up their phones, writes a message or makes a call and their phones end up in the hands of the "downloader", who in a matter of a few seconds gets on the bike and the rider does what he does best: zig zag between cars pending the cut of the traffic light.
Although motorcycle jets have been seen escaping along the sidewalks or down the street, in the opposite direction to traffic.
Another not so repeated modality is that of robberies that include the breakage of some glass of a car.
But the thieves would be different: those who mark their victims at the exit of a bank in the Microcentro and follow them after they remove their cars from a parking lot.
Outbursts
"We haven't heard any comments about armed robbery for a long time," says a grocer on Calle Honduras.
"Now everything is outburst. It is what we hear: a motorcycle goes up to the sidewalk and in seconds someone shouts '
grab it
'. We believe that they choose the victims by broadcasting. They look and decide on the most distracted person. It is not something for everyone the days, "he clarifies.
"Since the pandemic the cases have dropped. Before it was something of every day," warns a pharmaceutical employee on Honduras Street.
"Today's people are
opportunists
. They arrive and choose the victim at the moment. Pre-pandemic it was different: the merchants saw motorcycles going around and we called the Brigade. Another change is the type of motorcycles. We are seeing smaller motorcycles. Of 250 displacements down ", he adds.
Motochorros that assaulted a motorist in Palermo ran over an agent of the City Police.
They were arrested.
"The bar on the corner (for the one in Salguero) sold the goodwill for the robberies," explains a doorman at a building in Honduras.
"They were a couple. They took the collection and came to steal customer by customer. It must have been in 2018. I would tell you that they are the last with guns that we hear. Now it's all on a motorcycle, outbursts. The thief is walking like any neighbor , along with his victims. And in a second he shows what his true intention is and gets on the bike. They don't do something else, "he says.
As
Clarín
learned
, the thieves who act in this corner of the City would be from the area: Palermo, Almagro, Abasto, Chacarita and surroundings.
Until about ten years ago, the underworld frowned upon the cell phone thief.
Until technology limited the modalities.
The security cameras of the businesses made the robberies to locals decrease.
In addition, merchants are handling less and less cash.
Something similar happened with kidnappings, entrances and motor vehicle crime (always in CABA);
their rates are getting lower and lower.
There, the main hypothesis to understand the phenomenon would be the possible sentences to serve for being arrested for crimes that include weapons.
The seizure of cell phones, on the other hand, allows a quick release from prison.
Then, the new litters of thieves find in the robbery of telephones the best option.
"The issue is that they do not steal a phone per day," clarifies a source with access to the criminal world.
"Around there
seven or eight are stolen in one trip
. And what phones. Because as the penalty is the same for any type of cell phone, they aim at the high-end ones and go to Palermo believing that they will find the most expensive ones. That makes that two kids on a motorcycle can earn at least 100,000 per day. Take into account what they would collect in a week. Today there is no other type of thief that generates that money. "
EMJ
