Dressed As Scooby Doo Characters, Brazilian Undercover Cops Arrest Cellphone Thieves At Carnival

Police officers in Brazil have gone viral on social media after they busted a gang of cellphone thieves at a carnival, dressed as characters from "Scooby Doo". The four undercover police officers in Sao Paulo were dressed as Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Fred and Daphne from the popular cartoon show where the characters often ended up catching the bad guys after a long but adventurous chase.

The Scooby gang cops arrested two women and a man, with one of the thieves carrying at least eight stolen phones, according to a report in the New York Post. The police officers managed to return the devices to their rightful owners before hauling the thieves to a Sao Paulo police station for further investigation.

Beyond the Scooby-Doo gang, one of the officers was dressed as a character from the popular Netflix series "Squid Games" while another officer simply turned up in a Liverpool jersey.

As per the cops, gangs specialising in theft and robberies often take advantage of large crowds during the carnivals. However, the strategy of disguising undercover police as partygoers has led to a significant decline in festival-related crimes.

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Previous Instances

This is not the first instance where Brazilian cops have used novel and creative methods to nab suspects. In March last year, cops dressed as Power Rangers managed to pin a thief to the ground near Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo. As many as seven phones were recovered from the thief, according to Sao Paulo's Governor Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas.

Footage shared by the governor showed the red, blue, yellow, and green Power Rangers, wearing body-hugging colourful lycra costumes, monitoring the carnival while paying homage to the 1990-era show. Meanwhile, a fifth Power Ranger -- dressed in black, showcased the recovered devices.

Similarly, on Valentine's Day, a police officer in Peru's capital Lima carried out a drug raid while wearing a capybara costume and recovered 1,700 packages of cocaine and marijuana. Peru's Escuadron Verde - a specialist anti-drugs unit carried out the operation using the rather unconventional method.