Boss beatdown leaves teenager unconscious

There are tough bosses, and then there’s the construction site manager who beat a teen employee unconscious with a stick on Friday. According to the dazed 18-year-old, his boss attacked him after accusing him of not helping to fix a generator at their building site in the capital’s Sen Sok district. Police, sensing the manager’s discipline values were built on shaky ground, arrested him. Later, in hospital, the victim revealed a penchant for understatement when mentioning that he and his manager “didn’t get along”. It was also possible he was still concussed. Nokorwat

Misplaced phone leads to a boozy beatdown

A messy drunk, 47, could be searching for a new abode after pounding the stuffing out of his housemate for not returning his mobile phone on Friday. What began as drinks between friends – a common precursor to violence in this column, it seems – led to the perpetrator leaving his phone in his 25-year-old housemate’s motorbike. The older man later unleashed a flurry of fists on his friend for not returning the phone, likely ending their friendship and certainly blowing the older man’s credentials as a positive role model to other young men. Police will release him. Nokorwat

Six-year-old crime trips up apparent drug dealer

A fugative's past caught up with him on Friday when police arrested him over an argument in 2006 that turned violent. Police said the 24-year-old, who was arrested in Kampong Chhnang town on Saturday, had injured his victim and destroyed property. In his time on the run, police said, the man had been less focused on turning over a new leaf than he was in turning a profit with his inventory of drugs – officers seized a haul of narcotics, suggesting crime had not been a mere boyish pursuit for the man. Nokorwat

Head-pounding metal proves dark, painful

A frightening and dark experience involving metal and head-banging in a small room led to a 24-year-old man’s arrest in Battambang on Saturday. The man allegedly dragged a woman into a building, where he battered her head and face with a piece of metal. The man snatched her necklace and mobile phone before escaping on her motorbike. Nokorwat

Pick-up truck strikes, kills owner’s cousin

A man, 21, was killed when his cousin’s broken-down pick-up truck struck him in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district on Saturday. Police said the victim had been helping jumpstart the motor when it hit him as a bigger truck towed it. The driver of the other truck ran away. Koh Santepheap

Translated by Phak Seangly