One aspiring thief’s alibi was even more pathetic than his weapon after he tried robbing a man with a plastic pistol yesterday in the capital’s Tuol Kork district.

Sitting outside the market while his mother shopped for fruit, the moto owner was approached by a man brandishing a toy weapon. The intended victim jumped off his ride and shouted for help.

The suspect tried to flee, making it only 30 metres before a mob stopped him. He claimed it was him, in fact, who had been threatened with a gun.

Calling BS, the crowd held the fiend with the faux firearm until cops arrived to haul him in.

Koh Santepheap