Warnings, parents and children stealing together: police pressure reduces bus thefts by 40%

BarcelonaNotice, parents and children –some of them minors– committing thefts together on Barcelona buses. The youngest was 16 years old and the oldest 75. They were a group of up to 35 people who pretended to be a happy family among the seats of the bus, but whose objective was to steal wallets and mobile phones. Afterwards, they also tried to scam with mobile phone data. There is also a group of five criminals who accounted for 18% of the robberies in one month on the same means of transport. Or another group of ten people who divided their roles, and while some committed the thefts, others tried to access the bank data of the stolen mobile phones to carry out scams. They all lived in an occupied apartment in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Some used card readers to make immediate payments with the stolen cards.

These are some examples of the 85 repeat offenders whom the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Urbana have arrested in four months for committing crimes on the bus network of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), an initiative framed within plan Kanpai, which is the operation designed to tackle the most persistent thieves. As Inspector José Ángel Merino, head of the DIC of the Mossos in Barcelona, explained this Friday at a press conference, the thieves used to take advantage of "large crowds". For this reason, they looked for buses with a high density of users, which normally travel through tourist areas of the city.

The victims were usually female tourists, although they also tried to target "vulnerable" groups, such as elderly people or those with mobility limitations. On the other hand, the perpetrators are mostly middle-aged men who live in the suburbs of Barcelona and who "act in a coordinated manner". The incidents are concentrated in areas such as Plaça Catalunya or Parc Güell in the early morning or mid-afternoon, coinciding with school dismissal.

The plan launched by the Mossos, the Guardia Urbana, and TMB has already yielded results: during the first quarter of 2026, crimes on buses have been reduced by 40.7% compared to the same period last year: from 605 (the vast majority of which were thefts) to 359. The total is also 85 detainees who collectively had 628 police records. The five most active ones accumulate up to 175 records.

In total, this police initiative has analyzed 440 reports of robberies on buses and has resolved 222 with one arrest and 80 without. After the arrests, the courts issued 10 restraining orders from the bus network, a measure that, according to Merino, is working. In fact, he added that they are aware that some repeat offenders have left the country due to police pressure. They have not done so, however, to change sectors: the Mossos have received information from other police forces about arrests of repeat offenders who were previously in Catalonia.

The modus operandi

The criminals' techniques were very varied. One of the main ones, as explained by theintendent of the Guardia Urbana Juan Guzmán, was "the tap": a thief would position himself at the bus exit and, suddenly, stop. This would surprise the victim behind him, and a third person would take the opportunity to steal from them. They also used the "false samaritan" technique, for example, helping a mother to get her stroller off the bus while a second thief stole from her. "We are not talking about petty theft, but about groups that work methodically," stated Guzman. "We are trying to make things as difficult as possible," added Merino, who noted that the new law on repeated offenses will help combat this phenomenon.

At the press conference, held this Thursday at the Les Corts police station, the CEO of TMB, Xavier Flores, also participated, expressing "satisfaction with the success of this joint work." He explained that they have opted to install more video surveillance cameras on buses – more than 4,500 cameras – and this has facilitated police investigations, although the images are stored for a maximum of 30 days. "Public transport is a safe space and we are working to ensure there is no impunity," stated Flores.