MAKKAH: Police arrested a 14-year-old boy who snatched a woman’s handbag in the crowded Al-Mansour district of the holy city yesterday.
“The boy, who was born and brought up in Makkah to an illegally-staying Nigerian couple, was caught running away with the handbag,” said Maj. Abdul Muhsin Al-Mayman, spokesman for Makkah police. “Investigations are under way to ascertain whether he has been involved in other crimes and who his accomplices are,” he added.
The boy, Siraj, told Arab News after his arrest that he did not know the punishment for stealing.
“I have never been out of Makkah. At the age of nine my parents told me that they could not feed me any more and that I was big enough to earn my bread. So I started working in a vegetable market. But my parents were not satisfied with the pittance I earned there and so I started stealing as a side job,” he said.
“Although I have been caught several times, people never handed me to police considering my age,” he added.
Speaking about his crime yesterday, Siraj said, “My friend and I were walking along the shopping area on Al-Mansour Street when we spotted a woman with a bulgy purse. We approached her and my friend diverted her attention by crying and telling her that he was hungry. While they were talking, I snatched the woman’s purse and started running. But a policeman caught my shirt from behind. I couldn’t escape while my friend disappeared into the crowd.”
Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, director of Makkah’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said parents, whatever their nationality, are responsible for the crimes committed by their minor children.
“Parents who neglect bringing up their children in the correct manner should be punished. Society also has a major role in educating children to grow up with a sense of right and wrong,” he added.
