Alleged thief captured at primary school in Santiago de Cuba

A man was apprehended on Wednesday night at Primary School #8, located in the Nuevo Vista Alegre neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, while attempting to steal a turbine from the educational facility.

According to testimonies accessed by journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, the guards at the location heard noises around 8:00 p.m., and upon investigating, they found the individual with the turbine partially dismantled and stored in a backpack.

On the social network Facebook, the activist recounted that the security personnel at the venue restrained the alleged thief by tying his feet to prevent his escape, and then notified the police, who took him to a city unit.

So far, the name of the person is unknown, which is why Mayeta has requested assistance from the community to help identify him.

In October, a group of people captured a thief who robbed a man in a neighborhood of Vedado in Havana.

The moment when the alleged criminal is caught and subsequently handed over to the police was captured on video by a witness to the incident and shared on Facebook by the Cuban journalist Mario Vallejo.

"Right now! In front of the Vedado hotel in Havana, ordinary Cubans managed to subdue a thief who was snatching wallets and backpacks from his victims. Yet the regime still claims that crime on the island is minimal," commented Vallejo.

The images show several individuals holding the perpetrator on O Street, between 23 and 25, leading him into the hotel’s service entrance and detaining him there while they wait for the police to arrive.

The woman who filmed the video noted that hotel staff kept it in that location because "people were already wanting to hit it."

A patrol arrived a couple of minutes later, and two officers arrested the wrongdoer and took him to a police station.

Based on the comments in the video, it is presumed that the arrested individual had attempted to mug more than one person. One of the victims was an elderly man, who at the end of the video is seen entering the Hotel Vedado with the staff who helped capture the thief.

In the midst of the systemic crisis plaguing Cuba, there has been a reported increase in insecurity in the cities and towns across the country, attributed to the frequent incidents of theft, armed robberies, and murders being recorded.

In many cases, the population chooses to take matters into their own hands to capture the assailants and hand them over to the authorities, though there is no guarantee that they will be kept in custody and properly prosecuted.