A young boy was almost lynched to death yesterday, 17th September, at Nwanezapu Street, off Nnebisi road, Asaba the Delta State capital after being caught with a stolen phone at a popular barbershop in the street.
It was gathered that the culprit, Chike, from Anambra state, has approached the Royal Barbing Saloon located adjacent Gabs Shopping Mall, at about 2:30pm pretending to be a barber looking for a place to attach himself where he met two other young men working at the saloon and who offer to help him get a place.
It was further gathered that while trying to make efforts to reach out on the culprit’s behalf, he pocketed the phone of one of the young man that was on charging in one of the switch in the saloon while the owner was cutting the hair of a customer. Unknown to him, he was sighted on the mirror by the owner.
According to one of the young men in the saloon who called himself Toshiba, on sighting the culprit, he already had his suspicion on him, as someone suspected to have stolen a phone from the shop sometimes last year.
Toshiba who explained in pidgin said, “Last year this guy came to our shop, he met me and told me he was a barber, that he is looking for where he can be attach himself. I said okay, I’ll help him. I then place a call to someone that I know was looking for a barber and he agreed to meet him. After the whole discussion, he got up, took powder and rob on his face pretending to be looking at the mirror. After that he left, later that day, we discovered that someone’s phone that was plugged there has gone missing. I suspected him and we looked for him but he never came back till today.
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“Today when he came, he thought I won’t recognize him or remember the incident. He tried to play the same card and I took decided to play along. Initially my second, Nwanpa wanted to remove his phone but I advise he left it, to know if he will fall, and he did.
“As usual, he took powder and pretended to be looking at the mirror until he walked to where the phone is, unplugged it and put it in his pocket. As he was about to go out of the shop, Nwanpa stopped him and asked him to return his phone which he actually did without hesitation saying it was a mistake. At this point, I punched him, after I have confirmed that he was actually the one that stole the phone from our shop last year.
“That was how we arrested him and tied him up and called our oga that we have caught one of the thieves that steals from our shop.”
Also speaking, the owner of Royal Barbing Saloon, Mr. Festus Madu, expressed displeasure over the frequent robbery and theft going on in the street despite several complaints to security agencies.
“The issue last year was saddening. You know how it is when something gets missing in you shop, it affects your integrity. That same last year we where here at about 9pm, when a group of boys robbed us off our phones and cash at gunpoint. What was even more painful was that my customers who came from far, just because of friendship were robbed. One of them came all the way from Okpanam. And it was very saddening”, he lamented.
It was gathered that the culprit was later set free after much beatings and pleas from neighbors and passerbys.
