Passengers heading from Kikuyu to town were yesterday treated to a free-for-all drama when a man was thoroughly beaten after a phone he had stolen rang from his pocket.
The tall, dark man hurriedly boarded the matatu at the junction in Gitaru and secured a seat next to a woman, who later turned out to be the victim of theft.
On reaching Kinoo, the woman raised an alarm that her phone was missing, attracting everyone’s attention in the bus.
In an effort to trace it, she dialled her number using another passenger’s phone, and surprisingly, the phone was found ringing from the pockets of the man who sat next to her.
Enraged, the woman, expeditiously pounced on him on realising he had stolen her Samsung S3 phone.
The driver stopped the bus and the door was locked in order to teach the thief a lesson. Some of the angry passengers gave the woman a helping hand by throwing numerous blows to the thief, followed by a series of insults for his uncouth behaviour.
Following the commotion in the bus, the thief was ushered out to a mob that was watching the drama from the window. On learning that the man was a thief, the angry mob landed on him with several kicks and blows for his crime.
The thief whose clothes were almost torn begged for pardon but all in vain.
He was later rescued by the police and taken to the Kinoo Police Post. The woman who was the victim of the theft incident also accompanied them, in a bid to write a statement regarding the ordeal.