Teen with cerebral palsy attempts to rob jewellery store at gunpoint

The store staff reportedly thought it was a joke but the teenager then held up a replica of a gun with his feet, which they said "looked very real".

In a bizarre case, a teenager confined to wheelchair was arrested for an attempted robbery in a jewellery store in Brazil.

According to local reports, the incident took place at a store in Canela, and a passerby alerted the cops after seeing the 19-year-old offender with cerebral palsy threatening the store staff with what looked like a gun.

The boy waited in the store till all the other customers in the store left and then wheeled over to the staff and passed on a note that he had written using his feet. The note – written in Portuguese – asked the store owner to turn over everything to him and not to raise any alarm.

The store staff reportedly thought it was a joke but the teenager then held up a replica of a gun with his feet, which they said “looked very real”. According to G1, the owner of the store thought the teenager was raising money as one of the store’s customers was seen giving him some cash.

However, police who had been alerted by passerby rushed to the spot and managed to resolve the situation.

Watch the CCTV video here:

Jornal de Gramado reported that the police thought the teenager was an armed wheelchair user, and didn’t know that he was deaf or had cerebral palsy. Police said that when they reached the scene the boy was already on the floor.

The boy was taken to the Civil Police police station, where he testified with the help of a family member. He was released as he had no previous criminal record.

However, a local report said that the boy’s brother is presently in prison for murder and attempted murder in Canela.

A report in Metropoles quoted a local police officer Vladimir Medeiros saying that crime would have been impossible to complete “especially if you consider the physical condition of the suspect and the impossibility of him escaping”.