Phone theft has become one of the defining issues of Brazil's presidential election, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro both racing to prove they can crack down on thieves ahead of a tight run-off vote next Sunday.
Some 830,000 phone thefts were registered in Brazil last year, according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, even though the number has been falling since 2023. In a country of more than 210 million people where smartphones are woven into daily life, the crime has become a political liability and a symbol of the gap between falling homicide statistics and the public's lingering sense of insecurity.
Why phone theft dominates Brazil's election
The Irish Independent reported that a viral dashcam video of the late-August robbery of content creator Tabata Lenk in Sao Paulo crystallized the issue. Two motorcycle assailants smashed her car window in traffic and snatched her new phone from the dashboard.
Footage of the robbery spread immediately, Lenk said, and she was not alone in feeling the shock. A March survey found phone theft ranks as Brazilians' fourth-biggest safety concern, ahead of stray bullets and burglaries.
Natasha Bachini Pereira, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo's Center for the Study of Violence, said the prevalence of the crime explains its outsized political weight.
It's far more common for someone to know of, or have been exposed to, a case of cellphone theft than a car theft, a homicide, or a kidnapping, Pereira said.
A violent crime with a financial aftershock
What makes phone theft distinctive is what happens after the device changes hands. As digital financial services have expanded rapidly, driven by the central bank's Pix payment system, fraud involving stolen devices has exploded. The Forum, a non-profit that promotes public safety policies, said such fraud more than quadrupled from 2024 to 2025.
Lenk experienced this firsthand. After criminals stole her phone, they took 2,000 reais from her bank account using Pix.
It's terrible to experience the violence of having your cell phone stolen, but realizing that someone invaded your privacy and managed to steal money from your account is downright agonizing, Lenk said.
She felt so unsafe after the robbery that she only returned to driving alone after getting her car windows tinted.
No one should be afraid to leave their house, walk in the street, or use their own cell phone, Lenk said. So, I believe choosing politicians committed to public safety is essential.
Why phones are such a prize in Brazil
Brazil is one of the world's most online countries, where social media and e-payments dominate daily life. The phone has become an indispensable piece of kit, and an expensive one.
Research from Deutsche Bank found that tariffs, taxes and currency weakness make Brazil home to the world's second-most expensive iPhone 17 Pro, with a new one retailing at around $2,260, compared with $1,181 in the United States.
Even modest phones represent a huge outlay. An average phone retailed for around 2,310 reais, or about $456.83, in 2025, according to market data firm IDC, roughly two-thirds of Brazil's average monthly income.
Thieves are often just as interested in accessing online banking as in the device itself.
What Lula and Bolsonaro are promising
Both candidates have seized on the issue ahead of the run-off. Lula signed a law earlier this year raising sentences for stolen electronics to up to 10 years in prison and launched a platform to register devices and report thefts, as 93.3 The Drive reported.
I only want to take aim at the thief and the store that buys and sells the stolen phone, I don't want to harm the innocent person who bought it out of necessity, Lula said in a televised address.
Bolsonaro has proposed a minimum eight-year prison sentence.
The cellphone thief is going to jail, Bolsonaro said in a livestream after the first-round vote.
Recovery efforts and the limits of enforcement
Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, accounts for almost a third of all phone thefts nationwide, with 268,184 devices nabbed last year, the Forum said, citing state authorities.
Rodolfo Latif Sebba, a civil police chief coordinating efforts to find stolen phones, said police across Sao Paulo are working to prevent phone theft in the strongest possible way and improve public safety.
Still, only a fraction of stolen devices find their way home. Between June 2025 and September 23 this year, police in Sao Paulo state recovered 38,028 phones and returned 11,445 to theft victims, police said.
Student Natalia Eduarda Benvindo, 17, could not believe it when police found her stolen phone.
I asked, are you joking? Benvindo said. I couldn't even believe it at the time, wow! I was really happy.
The broader security picture
Brazil's homicide rate has fallen by 40% over the last 10 years, to 15.4 per 100,000 people in 2025, according to the Forum. Yet phone theft persists as a daily reminder of how far the country still has to go in bringing a sense of security to its citizens, as Investing.com noted.
FAQ
How many phones were stolen in Brazil last year?
About 830,000 phone thefts were registered in Brazil last year, according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, although the figure has been declining since 2023.
Why is phone theft a political issue in Brazil?
Phone theft is widespread, ranks fourth among Brazilians' safety concerns, and is often followed by bank fraud through the Pix payment system, making it a defining issue of the presidential run-off between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro.
What have the candidates proposed?
President Lula signed a law raising sentences for stolen electronics to up to 10 years and launched a device registration platform. Bolsonaro has proposed a minimum eight-year prison sentence for phone thieves.