Woman apprehends suspected thief at Santiago de Cuba Fair

Woman arrested suspected thief at street fair Santiago de Cuba and detained him until a police officer arrested him. The incident was shared in a video by an independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on his Facebook profile.

According to Mayeta Labrada, the event occurred at the agricultural fair located on the central street Sueño Avenue. “A woman, braver than many men, captured a thief and abuser of women,” he said. “She caught a thief who took advantage of a saleswoman with a child in her arms to steal all the money from her sales,” he detailed.

In the video, the main character, who also appears to be a salesman, angrily says he saw a man robbing the woman as she bent down to pick bananas. “This isn’t right,” she exclaimed in frustration, and immediately, without much thought, set off in pursuit of the suspected thief. The footage then shows her holding a man by his shirt and shouting: “It was him!”

Other people gathered and handed the man – who denied having anything – to a police officer at the scene. Amid the commotion, the robbery victim arrived with her child and slapped the detained man.

Such scenes are becoming more and more common in Cuba, where assaults and thefts are on the rise amid the worst socio-economic crisis the country has ever known. At the end of April, also in Santiago de Cuba, residents apprehended a suspected thief who was operating in broad daylight in the San Pablo neighborhood in the Micro 9 neighborhood.

Mayeta Labrada shared a brief video showing the man crouching with his hands tied behind his back, arguing with one of his captors. “They caught him stealing, he changed his shirt to avoid being recognized, but all the men in my neighborhood chased him until they caught him,” a witness said. The suspect accused people of beating him. “Look, you're not bleeding, you're not swollen, they didn't hit you,” replied a local resident.

Days earlier, Santiago residents had apprehended and tied up a thief in the street, holding him until police arrived. The man was tied to the gate of a house on Escario Street, between Pizarro and Hernán Cortés. Witnesses said he stole a woman's cell phone near the Plaza de Marte, although he repeatedly claimed he did nothing.

When a police officer arrived, the crowd shouted at him not to release the thief. In mid-April, residents arrested a suspected thief who snatched a teenager's cellphone outside his door and held him there until police arrived. The incident took place on 6 Street, between D and E, in the Sueño neighborhood, a central area of ​​the city. The captured footage showed the thief in a state of anxiety, apparently with a swollen eye.