Thief who 'attacked pensioner' is stripped naked and wrapped in cling film by mob of vigilantes

Valentino Abeyta Barrera was set upon by Chilean crowd after reportedly attempting to rob OAP by holding a knife to his throat

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/thief-who-attacked-pensioner-stripped-4711798?ICID=FB_mirror_main

A would-be thief who was allegedly spotted trying to rob an OAP by holding a knife to his throat was disarmed, stripped naked and tied to a lamppost with cling film by a mob of vigilantes.

Crowds gathered round 32-year-old Valentino Abeyta Barrera as he was stripped, had his underpants pulled down, and was then wrapped in plastic cellophane in the incident in the Chilean capital Santiago.

Photographs of the incident were posted online where they quickly went viral, and sparked heated debate over vigilante justice.

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Vigilantes: The thief is stripped, wrapped in cling film and strapped to a pole

Many said that it made those giving the crook a beating as bad as the crook himself, while others said it showed the lack of faith in the police and the justice system.

Daniela Montoya Pazo said: "They just had to arrest him, not beat him. This kind of things put us at the same level as the criminals."

But another, Daichi Yuka, said: "I would like to do the same thing to the thief who threatened me with a weapon this morning."

Police arrived after 20 minutes and asked the man tied to the lamppost what was going on and he declined to comment, asking only that he be freed.

After he was released and taken to the police station he refused to file a complaint, and police said they had been forced to let him go because the alleged victim of the man's attack had also not made a complaint.

A police spokesman said: "Unless the man who was tied to the lamppost or his alleged victim want to file a complaint, there is not much we can do."