Residents corner thieves and recover phones stolen from teenagers on Huelin beach

A group of 14-year-olds left their things on the sand to go for a dip in the sea. Meanwhile two thieves approached and started rummaging through their belongings. They were unaware, but they were being filmed. This started a chain of local camaraderie that allowed the victims to recover the phones and money that had been stolen from them.

The evidence, shared on social media, was filmed on a bystander's phone. In the video, the woman can be heard telling a friend about the situation: "Look, can you see how he's putting it in his pocket?". The call to the police can also be heard in the background: reporting the incident happened on Huelin beach, specifically at San Andrés-Misericordia, near the Burger King on Calle Pacífico.

The thieves, with little disguise, took two mobile phones and 30 euros that the teenagers had left with their towels. After the theft, the woman told the victims that she had recorded the incident and sent the video to one of their parents, Víctor Cardosa, who wanted to make the incident public on social media.

On X (formerly Twitter), the father posted the following message: "Look at these criminals. Yesterday on the beach of San Andrés, Malaga, our children were robbed. The police were called and said that they could not come", in reference to the National Police.

Cardosa immediately left his house and went to the beach to help his son. By then, thanks to the woman's video, the teenagers had begun to follow the thieves, who were walking towards the centre of Malaga. They bumped into another friend's father on the way and he helped them too.

"The kids tracked them down - near the Go Fit gym in Huelin - and caught them swaping the phones' sim cards. With the help of that father and several local residents, they cornered the thieves. The group called the perpetrators' attention and asked them to return the things they had stolen. And they did. The best part of the situation is that no one resorted to violence".