Video of thief stripped naked by victim shocks Colombia

BOGOTA – A video of a thief caught and stripped naked by his victims is drawing rebuke from police in Colombia’s capital but praise from residents tired of rampant crime.

The episode was captured on a cellphone and has been widely viewed.

It shows a woman who claims the now-unarmed young man assaulted her with a knife. She grabs the youth by his hair and forces him to kneel on the sidewalk and ask for forgiveness to a group of bystanders. With threatening language, she then orders him to strip off his clothes and sends him off naked amid a litany of expletives and threats.

Bogota’s police are calling on residents to avoid such acts of vigilantism. But on social media the unidentified women was celebrated as a hero.