By Mohamed Foday Conteh
A 55-year-old man, Alfred Bull was caught stealing a lady’s bag at West End Clinic on Edward Street via Sanders Street in Freetown on the 22nd June 2021.
Bull in the afternoon hours of yesterday used the auxiliary gate leading to the staircase to gain access to the upper floors of the building. He then made an attempt to grab a black leather bag belonging to Nurse Konima Kamara.
Nurse Konima said she was having a slight headache when she went to the other room leaving the bag on the table. “I saw the man drawing my bag and when I shouted, he ran,” Konima said. The man was captured by the security as he vainly tried to hide behind a vehicle parked close to the hospital entrance.
Mohamed Conteh, the security at the hospital was forced to hide the alleged thief in a room to protect him from the irate crowd that wanted to beat him up “The man admitted that he had indeed wanted to snatch the bag and pleaded for mercy,” Conteh said.
Bull who claimed he is a father of two children aged 32 and 16, said that he resides in Waterloo and he had been visiting that hospital occasionally. He said he was under a spell cast on him by his elder brother to have an irresistible urge for stealing.
Staff of the hospital said there has been occasional thefts at the Clinic and that about two weeks ago, a mobile phone was stolen in Ward 6 on the first floor of the clinic. “They come as patients or visitors at times and they know that hospitals have wards,” one Nurse Hassanatu stated.
Mohamed Mansaray, a resident of Edward Street, said that they wanted to beat the man to ensure that he does not steal again. “That is a method of correcting him so that he does not take what does not belong to him,” he said.
The thief was later taken to the Adelaide Street Police Station by the clinic’s security and office assistant.
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