It sounds like the kind of story a devoted BTS fan might invent: a thief steals a woman’s phone, notices a photograph of Jin in military uniform, then immediately gives the phone back and runs away.
But according to 21-year-old Brazilian student Natali Vitoria Ramos Reis, that is exactly what happened.
A Phone Snatched at a Bus Stop
In July 2023, Natali had finished an evening class and was waiting at a bus stop in São José dos Pinhais, near Curitiba, Brazil.
While she was standing there, a man approached and grabbed the phone directly from her hand.
For a moment, the theft appeared to be over. The man had the phone and could have fled with it.
Instead, he turned it over.
Inside Natali’s transparent phone case was a photocard of BTS member Jin wearing his South Korean military uniform.
The man reportedly looked at the photograph, handed the phone back to Natali, and ran away.
Did the Thief Think Jin Was Her Boyfriend?
Natali believed the thief may have mistaken Jin for her boyfriend.
Because Jin was pictured in military clothing, she thought the man might have assumed that the phone belonged to someone whose partner was a soldier. That possibility may have made him reconsider the robbery.
However, the thief’s reasoning was never confirmed.
No one knows exactly what he thought when he saw the photocard. It is possible that something else caused him to return the phone.
Still, the sequence of events was difficult to ignore.
He took the phone.
He saw the image of a man in military uniform.
Then he gave the phone back and fled.
Jin Really Was Serving in the Military
The coincidence became even more unusual because Jin was genuinely completing his mandatory military service in South Korea at the time.
He had enlisted in December 2022 and was serving thousands of miles away from Brazil when Natali’s phone was taken.
According to the account, Jin had also received elite-soldier recognition and had been promoted to corporal ahead of schedule.
The thief may not have known who Jin was. To him, the photograph may simply have looked like an image of Natali’s military boyfriend.
An Unlikely Security System
Photocards are popular collectibles among K-pop fans. They are often placed inside transparent phone cases, wallets, bags, or protective sleeves.
For Natali, that ordinary fan item may have served an unexpected purpose.
A picture of a singer became a possible deterrent.
A K-pop collectible became an accidental security system.
And Jin, without knowing anything about the incident, may have helped stop a phone theft from the other side of the world.
A Strange Story With an Unconfirmed Explanation
The most important detail is that the thief’s motive remains uncertain.
Natali’s belief that he mistook Jin for her soldier boyfriend is an interpretation of what happened, not a confirmed statement from the man who took the phone.
What is clear from her account is that the phone was grabbed, the photocard was noticed, and the device was returned.
That brief moment turned an attempted theft into one of the strangest stories connected to BTS fandom.
Sometimes the most unexpected form of protection is not an alarm, a lock, or a tracking app.
Sometimes it is a photocard inside a transparent phone case.
