Title millions of views, a video purportedly showing the arrest of a thief at the Vasco da Gama shopping center in Lisbon circulated on Sunday. However, the video, shared by André Ventura, leader of the Chega party, is not recent and has been in circulation since March 2024.
Claim: “man was arrested after robbing a jewelry store in crowded Vasco da Gama”
Several social media accounts have shared a video allegedly showing a “man [who] was arrested [Sunday] after robbing a jewelry store in the crowded Vasco da Gama,” with origins apparent in an Instagram post by ‘tugas100limites’, where it has amassed over half a million views.
Parts of these images, which display five security guards managing and escorting a young man dressed in a t-shirt and shorts down the mall hallway, were shared by André Ventura on various social media platforms, amassing over 2.7 million views https://archive.ph/UQ65z, https://archive.ph/Le2ey, and https://archive.ph/MS4au.
In this version of the video, featuring Chega’s graphics, dramatic music, and an initial segment filmed outside Vasco da Gama, a group of guards can be seen kicking the alleged suspect. André Ventura comments that the “shameless little thief should have received more punishments to learn to respect us and the public order!”
Facts: video of a young man detained by five security guards has circulated since March 2024
None of the accounts mention the video’s origin, but content analysis and reverse searches indicate two distinct moments are shown. The first part of the video shared by Ventura relates to the arrest of the suspect from a jewelry store robbery on Sunday, supported by other images of the same event.
The ‘tugas100limites’ account shares multiple videos of this arrest and aggression, including when two PSP officers remove the suspect from Vasco da Gama and place him in a police car parked outside: https://archive.ph/JFRWA.
These images, also shared by media outlets (example: https://archive.ph/auBuE), confirm the detainee remained in the dark jacket with a light collar and gray pants used during the robbery, visible in earlier images (example: https://archive.ph/lYEVs).
Later, André Ventura shared this detention video on TikTok alone, with a caption, “I bet he’ll be out in 2 hours” and remarked, “this one should receive a punishment to never do such a thing again!”: https://archive.ph/FOD3S. In reality, the man was placed in pre-trial detention: https://archive.ph/2L7jq.
The roughly 10 seconds showing the detained young man accompanied by five security guards on one of Vasco da Gama’s floors are unrelated to the jewelry store robbery. This video has circulated since at least March 23, 2024, indicating a shoe store theft attempt at the same location, a claim not yet verified: https://archive.ph/rNp7D.
On Monday afternoon, Lusa Verifica informed Chega’s communications office about these images’ origin and inquired if André Ventura intended to maintain the misleading posts identifying another person as the jewelry store thief. There has been no response, nor have the posts been deleted or corrected.
Lusa Verifica Evaluation: False
It is false that the video circulating on social media showing five Vasco da Gama shopping center security guards arresting a young man is of the suspect’s detention for the jewelry store robbery on Sunday. These images are related to an incident recorded over a year and a half ago.
