A thief in Mombasa escaped death by a whisker after seeking refuge in a bank in a bid to escape from an irate crowd that was baying for his blood.
It is alleged that the suspect had grabbed a woman’s bag and ran into one of the banks along Digo road as the crowds pursued him.
The bank that the suspect had sought refuge and the one adjacent were forced to lock their doors as the crowd pitched camp outside waiting to pounce on the suspect.
The security guards of the two facilities had to call for reinforcement in order to disperse the crowd.
According to the woman whose bag was snatched, the suspect approached him and borrowed her some money.
“The man approached me and requested that I help him with some money. Minutes later, however, a man standing beside me informed that the suspect had stolen my pouch bag,” Ramla Mghenyi said while speaking to the media.
“I had Ksh4,500, my bank cards and a bunch of keys in that bag,”, she added.
Mghenyi further said that such cases had become rampant in the town while calling upon the government to take necessary action against the perpetrators.
“We have no peace and we are asking the government to come to our aid. Imagine if such a thief had weapons, he would have probably used on innocent people,” Mghenyi stated.
The suspect was later whisked away to Central Police Station in Mombasa, awaiting arraignment after investigations are concluded.
The police urged locals to report such cases and not take the law in their hands.
In a separate incident, detectives are looking for a matatu driver who ferrying 13 bales of bhang and 35 litres of chang’aa from Malaba to Nairobi.
DCI said the suspect abandoned his vehicle after engaging police officers in a race leaving behind three nuns.
According to DCI, sleuths from the Lang’ata Division had stopped the vehicle along the Southern bypass but the driver refused to stop, prompting a chase.
“Three of the passengers were Catholic missionaries from the Benedictine Sisters. The visibly shaken nuns were however not connected to the consignment since they had boarded the vehicle as passengers, headed to a convent in Karen,” DCI said.
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