Crowd Strips Thief Naked, Wraps Him in Clingfilm and Ties Him to Lampost

An alleged thief who was accused of trying to rob a pensioner at a knifepoint was stripped naked and wrapped from head to foot in clingfilm, and then tied to a lamppost by a crowd in Chile's capital, Santiago.

Photographs of 32-year-old Valentino Abeyta Barrera, with his underpants around his ankles, and a video of the incident have gone viral on the internet.

Barrera was tied to the lamppost for 20 minutes, until the police arrived. The alleged thief did not tell the police what happened, instead, he begged the officials to free him, Metro reports.

The photographs and the video posted online paved way for a discussion about the significance of vigilante justice. Barrera did not make any complaint to the police regarding the incident. This could mean either Barrera was very scared or he was in fact guilty. If Barrera is proved guilty, the actions of the vigilante mob will be justified.

According to Mirror, some believe that the ones who tried to punish the thief by stripping and beating him were as guilty of a crime as Barrera himself; while others argued that the fact that citizens had to take the law in their hands hinted at their lack of confidence in the police or even the justice system.

A commenter, 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."

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

Police responded to the reactions later. A spokesman for the police 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."

View the video below: