A woman in Brazil has passed away after seeming to attempt to smuggle 26 iPhones out of the country.
Officials say Ana Julia da Silva Vargas, who was taking a long-distance bus trip, collapsed during a rest stop, complaining of shortness of breath.
While trying to resuscitate her, emergency workers made an alarming discovery.
A 20-year-old woman suffers from shortness of breath during a long bus journey
Image credits: terceira_opiniao / Instagram
Image credits: astrosystem / stock.adobe (not the actual photo)
The bus had been traveling from Foz do Iguaçu to São Paulo, a journey that can take anywhere from 13-15 hours.
Officials say that the bus had made a scheduled stop at a roadside restaurant in Guarapuava, located in the central region of Paraná state.
It was then that 20-year-old Ana Julia da Silva Vargas reported experiencing trouble breathing, local media say.
Image credits: RedLightsJoinville / YouTube (not the actual photo)
When members of the Mobile Emergency Care Service, the SAMU, arrived, they found her awake but struggling with severe shortness of breath.
Then her condition worsened, and she began showing signs of respiratory distress consistent with a seizure.
After 45 minutes of resuscitation efforts, Vargas lost her life.
It was during these life-saving attempts that medical personnel noticed something strange.
Police found 26 iPhones stuck to the woman’s body with glue
Image credits: Daniel Romero / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Several unusual packages were stuck to Vargas’ torso and limbs.
A full inspection revealed that no less than 26 iPhones had been affixed to her body, glued directly on her skin.
Brazil’s Military Police were joined by forensic specialists from the Scientific and Civil Police, who secured the scene and began a formal investigation.
They say it was likely an attempt to smuggle the high-value devices undetected.
Police say sniffer dogs found no drugs on Vargas or in her belongings, but they did find several bottles of alcohol, which have since been seized.
“Maybe she had a bad connection”: Netizens react with cheeky comments
Image credits: Sean Davis / stock.adobe (not the actual photo)
Netizens are having a range of reactions to the news of Vargas’s seeming iPhone smuggling attempt.
Some people say that the phones were all “probably stolen,” saying that taping things to your person is a common way to get things out of or into a country.
Other people said that the woman might have been trying to sell them. Still others speculated that having so many electronic devices glued directly to your skin might pose a health risk.
“I reckon there was too much radiation pulsing through her body at one given time,” one person claimed.
Image credits: Eduardo Ramos / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, “The only consistently recognized biological effect of radiofrequency radiation absorption in humans that the general public might encounter is heating to the area of the body where a cell phone is held (e.g., the ear and head).”
Their website continued: “However, that heating is not sufficient to measurably increase core body temperature. There are no other clearly established dangerous health effects on the human body from radiofrequency radiation.”
Other speculations were closer to wisecracks: “Maybe she had a bad connection”, one person chided, while another said, “Maybe she didn’t have service.”
“An Apple a day…” another noted, as a play on the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
And then there was the borderline dad joke: “She’s a d*ad ringer for love now.”
Brazilian media released a photo of the alleged victim
Image credits: LucinhoMendes / X
In an official statement, Paraná’s Civil Police said that the iPhones had been confiscated and were now in the hands of the Federal Revenue Service.
Forensic tests to determine the exact reason Vargas lost her life are still being carried out, authorities say.
She was reportedly traveling alone, and police have yet to determine whether she was acting independently or on behalf of a larger smuggling operation.
Vargas’ passing remains under investigation, and officials have not yet released further details, including any possible connections to organized crime.
There have been multiple cases of people trying to smuggle iPhones
Image credits: hedgehog94 / stock.adobe (not the actual photo)
It’s not the first time iPhones have been smuggled into or out of a country.
Instances have been reported time and again wherein people attach the devices to their bodies and try to enter a country.
In 2015, Chinese customs officials nabbed a Hong Kong man trying to sneak 94 iPhones into the mainland – by affixing them to his body.
Image credits: g1.globo (not the actual photo)
In October of last year, customs officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport caught a woman trying to smuggle 26 iPhone 16 Pro Max devices from Hong Kong to Delhi
And in January of this year, Pakistani customs officials confiscated 78 iPhone 16 Pro Max devices from the luggage of five flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines.
North Korea severely restricts internet access on citizens’ smartphones
Image credits: Freepik (not the actual photo)
iPhones were at the center of another controversy, this time in North Korea, in June of this year.
In a story by the BBC, it was discovered that smartphones in the hermit kingdom are severely restricted.
They reported how a South Korean media company smuggled a phone out of North Korea that was heavily restricted.
“The phone had been programmed so that when a South Korean variant of a word is entered, it automatically vanishes, replaced with the North Korean equivalent – an Orwellian move,” the BBC reported.
The article quoted an expert as saying that “smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people.”
Netizens speculate about what caused a Brazilian woman found with iPhones stuck to her to lose her life
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