Rabat Hooded Thief Filmed In Viral Video Holds More Than 20 Convictions Spanning Over A Decade
The would-be thief caught on camera in the Tal-Virtu area of Rabat has been arrested and charged in court.
Mangion pled not guilty to the charges of stealing some €20 in cash from a parked Fiat, saying obscene words in public, insulting the man who had chased him after the alleged theft, as well as breaching two bail conditions.
The accused, Patrick Mangion, is a repeat offender who has a long history with crime and theft. In 2008, he was sentenced to prison for two years after racking up 21 convictions on his criminal record
In 2017, he was accused of stealing jewellery and other objects from a Naxxar residence.
A video which was filmed by a Rabat resident this weekend, shows Mangion dressed in black running down the street and swearing at the man behind the camera, who repeatedly calls him a thief. In a mere couple of days, the video amassed over 150,000 views.
“Leave me alone, I didn’t take anything from you,” Mangion can be heard saying, to which the person filming responds: “But you were trying to steal.”
At one point, Mangion grabs a stick and throws it at the resident to try and scare him off. As he continues to tail the would-be thief, the resident calls the police to report the attempted robbery, also informing them of the number plate of the car Mangion eventually got in.
It has now emerged that the driver of this car didn’t actually know Mangion, but was hailed down and told the guy filming was chasing down and trying to hurt Mangion. “In the confusion of the moment, he picked him and drove away,” a friend of the driver told Lovin Malta. “However, when the driver told Mangion to report the incident to the police, he acted very strangely, so the driver asked him to get out of the car.”
The defence’s lawyer requested bail as Mangion turned up to give his statement to the police and that the whole incident was recorded on film. However, due to previous charges, Magistrate Josette Demicoli turned down the request.
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