Greater Jakarta: Alleged
thief beaten during eclipse
watch

An alleged thief was taken into police custody after being beaten by angry eclipse spectators at the Planetarium, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday morning.

It was reported that the alleged thief, identified as Rahman, stole a cellphone belonging to Ilham, a Planetarium visitor who was observing the solar eclipse through a telescope with his girlfriend.

“When I was watching the eclipse through the telescope, I felt someone pushing into me. At that time, not many people wanted to gaze through the telescope,” Ilham said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Ilham, suspecting Rahman was a thief, immediately checked his pocket and found his cellphone was missing. The victim chased the suspect and confronted him.

“He said he didn’t know about my cellphone and asked me to meet his friends. I refused and tried to bring him to the nearest police office, at that point he ran off,” Ilham said, adding that he then attracted other spectators by calling out “Stop thief!”

Other spectators caught Rahman and beat him before taking him to the Menteng Police subprecinct office, where he was held for questioning.