Alarms and cameras have not been enough to contain the actions of criminals, who continue to steal from stores in broad daylight or break into businesses at night. Despite store owners taking extra care with security, Belo Horizonte faces an alarming average of 24 thefts from commercial establishments per day, according to data from the State Secretariat of Justice and Public Security (Sejusp) from last year. Not even areas previously considered peaceful, such as the Belvedere neighborhood, in the Center-South Region, are immune to the audacity of criminals. In just one week, Avenida Luiz Paulo Franco, one of the main streets in the neighborhood, recorded three incidents of shoplifting, a worrying trend that is repeated throughout the city.
Last Sunday (28/4), thieves broke through the walls of three businesses to access a jewelry store on Rua Espírito Santo, in the center of BH. They took gold watches and jewelry, valued at more than half a million reais. A bakery was among the properties invaded by the bandits. To the Military Police, the owner reported having suffered a loss of R$6,000 in cash, in addition to bread and drinks, such as soft drinks and whiskey having been stolen. A hole measuring approximately 1 meter in diameter was opened in one of the walls of the establishment, through which the criminals gained access to another store, until they reached the jewelry store. All of them had security cameras and only one had the alarm deactivated, according to the PM. Now, the Civil Police are investigating the case and are still looking for the suspects.
At Belvedere, on the contrary, the thefts occurred during business hours. Around 9 am, on April 12, a young man entered a Drogaria Araújo unit, on Avenida Luiz Paulo Franco and, without hesitation, stole a package of diapers, fleeing along the busy avenue and leaving pedestrians stunned. The previous week, the same store, which has security, was the target of a raid carried out by a group of teenagers. At lunch time (around 12pm), they entered the place, grabbed packages of diapers and ran out. No one was detained. Also at the beginning of April, on 9/4, three young people invaded a branch of Droga Raia, on the corner of Rua Jornalista Djalma de Andrade, threatened employees and left carrying perfumery products.
These recent cases are in addition to the 2,197 commercial establishments broken into and robbed in the first three months of this year, a number just below the 2,522 registered in the same period last year. In 2023, a total of 9,811 crimes of this type were carried out.
The same reality repeats itself throughout Minas Gerais. The state records an average of 86 thefts in businesses per day. This year alone, there were 7,805 cases until March. The data does not have specific information, such as division by neighborhoods or regions. Sejusp’s justification for not unraveling the data is to avoid stigmatizing one location over another, but it says that the record can be checked via the Access to Information Law.
Boldness without joy
The feeling of insecurity has become routine at Belvedere and what scares the most, according to shopkeepers interviewed by Estado de Minas, is the audacity of the criminals. Opened three weeks ago, on Avenida Luiz Paulo Franco, the store owned by manager Raquel Pinheiro, 27 years old, has already been the target of a theft. The suspect took advantage of the moment when she and the other two salespeople were in attendance to grab a backpack and walked away, calmly, with the accessory. “I still went after him, asked him to return it, and he said no. But I ended up letting it go, because I didn’t know if he was armed or not,” she said.
Powerless in the face of the criminal’s audacity, Raquel was left with the fear that, on a next occasion, the robber’s attitude would be more violent. Now, the team fears for their own safety until the store closes, which is open from Monday to Saturday, until 6pm. The fear is justified because the suspect is already known by shopkeepers in the region for petty crimes. “We are still afraid, because he took it so easily and walked away as if it were nothing, as if it were common. Even closing the store makes us scared, because we don’t know what could happen”, he lamented.
Raquel’s feeling is reiterated by Wanda Niza, manager of a restaurant on the same avenue who, four months ago, decided to close the establishment half an hour early for fear of violence in the region. Not even the alarm and security camera prevented his restaurant from being broken into in December last year. The case happened in the early hours of the morning and the criminals took the store’s cashier and cell phone. “We don’t know who’s on the street, whether they’re going to come in with the store open and rob them,” she says. Working at the same location for 18 years, Wanda has witnessed a significant increase in this type of crime in recent months. “Before, there were no break-ins, but since the end of last year the crimes have been recurring. They went into every store on this block,” she said.
Just over 200 meters from the restaurant, close to Avenida Luiz Paulo Franco, is a mobile community base for the Military Police. Even so, according to Wanda, the feeling of vulnerability persists due to the delay in police responding to the incidents. “We call the police and they don’t come, or it takes them more than 40 minutes to arrive. Then the criminals see this and feel like they can do whatever they want,” she complains.
When contacted by the report, the PM said that it maintains extensive policing, 24 hours a day, in the region, and points to a decline in crime, especially in cases involving acts against property. “The participation of the community with the adoption of preventive behaviors, combined with the actions of police officers on duty in the locality, have produced more effective and positive results with the reduction in theft crimes and, within this modality, in theft qualified by burglary”, he highlighted. the corporation by means of a note.
Crime dynamics are worrying
The problem is not just at night, when the stores are already closed. The perception is that the number of robberies and thefts from pedestrians on the streets has also increased. In addition to traders, residents are also alarmed by the situation, as is the case of civil engineer José Eduardo Caetano Correa, resident of Rua Desembargador Jorge Fontana, for more than five years. Faced with this scenario of insecurity, he says he prefers to go out at the busiest times, opting to use the car instead of getting around on foot when there is less movement of people. “It’s emptier there, especially early in the morning and late afternoon. I see that everyone is worried – anyone who goes out for a walk or to work is already on alert,” he told the reporter.
Lawyer Alessandra Alves de Vasconcelos, 45, takes her 10-year-old son twice a week to private classes at a school on Avenida Luiz Paulo Franco and reveals her fear of letting him go alone. She compares the situation to the central area of BH which, according to an exclusive survey by the Estado de Minas report, released in 2022, has a much higher level of occurrences than in other areas. “It looks like the city center here. I park and come with him (the son), because it’s getting dangerous. I’m scared,” she says. She recounted a recent incident she witnessed on the road, when a young woman had her cell phone stolen while she was talking on the phone.
In the assessment of criminal lawyer and public security researcher, Jorge Tassi, the escalation of incidents at Belvedere reflects a change in the pattern of this type of crime over time, with a decline in the theft of electronics as the popularization of cell phones reduced their value in the market. “The cell phone exchange market has dried up, it is very polluted, there are a lot of people doing it and, as a result, the value has dropped. With a stolen cell phone worth R$30, R$50, the focus became different. Anyone who is on the street to steal and makes a living from this type of crime is looking for something that will make financial sense and with a low risk of identification”, explains the specialist to Estado de Minas. Furthermore, the last revision of BH’s master plan, five years ago, contributed to accelerated commercial expansion in the upscale neighborhood of the Central-South Region, which, according to Tassi, is associated with an increase in crime.
With the opening of stores and the construction of galleries, which mainly feature luxury and high-end brands, stores have become targets of constant damage and theft in Belvedere. “They started to turn their attention to a neighborhood where at night, for example, people forget about it, because it is simply empty”, he points out. The expert emphasizes the need for investments in active security systems and integration between public and private security. “The camera and alarm are passive systems. First there is the theft and then the police are called. What will be needed in a region like Belvedere, where the risks are more specific, is to complement the efforts of the police with private security”, he assesses.
Locked homes and criminals in the crosshairs
Home invasion and theft crimes also have an alarming average in BH: there are almost 15 occurrences per day, according to Sejusp. This year alone, 1,233 cases have been recorded. The day before yesterday (30/4), the Civil Police dismantled a gang specializing in thefts and robberies of luxury homes in the capital of Minas Gerais and Greater BH. The loss already amounts to more than R$2 million. The crimes occurred from June 2023 until April this year. Of the total thefts, 20 were recorded in the Cidade Nova, Mangabeiras, Sion, Comiteco and Pampulha neighborhoods, in Belo Horizonte.
