Aravot reporter helps find a group of pickpockets in public vehicle No. 70 on July 22, in 2019.
Seeing an old poor woman's wallet being stolen, she took photos of the pickpockets by phone and forced them to give back the stolen item. The strangest and surprising thing was that neither the passengers nor the passers-by wanted to get involved in the incident, they were indifferent. Some of them watched the young girl fight against the thieves as if they were watching a play in the theater. Some simply left the area indifferently for fear of getting into trouble because the pickpockets threatened to break the journalist's phone, started to call her names. Having seen the persistence of the victim and the journalist, the thieves had to give back the wallet.
People in the street started applauding her and calling her a hero. The reporter posted the photos of the pickpockets on Facebook. It made a lot of buzz on social networks, over 7,000 people responded and shared the post emphasizing that indifference is really evil, it gives rise to new crimes.
Hundreds of citizens began to share how they had fallen victims to the pickpockets. Days later, one of the Facebook users, Vahram Bulghadaryan, saw those pickpockets on the bus and recognized them. He warned the passengers to be careful, to take care of their bags and one of the thieves even tried to stab him. Fortunately, everything ended without victims.
But the question was why the police did not arrest this group of pickpockets after discovering the theft? (see https://www.aravot.am/2019/08/08/1059409/) Apparently, pickpocketing in Armenia was not legally punished, as the pickpockets were released after having been arrested. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdy6vwA1JCQ). There was a thief who had been released 121 times. This incident made the National Assembly of Armenia change the legislation.
Reportedly, since 9 December, 2019, the time when the law entered into force, there have been 29 pickpockets arrested only in Yerevan.
It should be mentioned that, at this time, many media outlets covered this story by the "Aravot Daily" journalist:
"The elusive pickpockets.” why is it difficult to catch them?
The journalist got off the minibus with the pickpocket and demanded that the stolen money be returned.
314 cases in 6 months․ Why do famous pickpockets walk freely?
A flash mob against pickpockets has started on the Internet
Flash mob against pickpockets
He was caught, but he is not a thief. The police are not able to fight against the "pickpockets"
The cases of pickpocketing are increasing every day in Armenia. There is one reason - impunity. A draft to make changes in the relevant law has been submitted to the National Assembly, which will allow taking a tougher stance on this type of crime.