‘Batman’ vigilante hunts down gang of bike thieves in Mexico
A vigilante in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico, has seemingly declared war on crime, hunting down five bike thieves and taping them to lampposts, earning the nickname “Batman” in the process.
The first case was discovered on June 13th, when a young man was discovered with his body entirely covered in duct tape that fixed him to a lamppost near a local police station. He also had the word “ratero”, which is the Spanish for “thief”, written on his forehead and a pink sign placed over his head explaining that he was a serial bike thief who had escaped the law too many times.
Furthermore, he had a bicycle lying on the ground next to him.
This would have been nothing more than a strange day at the office for the local police force, but in the weeks since, no less than four more bike thieves have popped up duct-taped to lampposts.
Sometimes with more creative drawings on their face like whiskers and moustaches. Others have had signs of a physical scuffle on them, like bruises and cuts to their face and hands.
It would be easy to write this off as a publicity stunt or a prank from some bored local kids wasting police time. Yet the truth is that Lagos de Moreno does have a spiralling rate of petty crime, and journalists in Mexico like Luis Cardenas have connected this activity to a boiling dissatisfaction within the city with its law enforcement. Cardenas went so far as to call this vigilante “the Batman of Lagos de Moreno“.
However, some signs and a few errant bikes aren’t enough to convict people of theft, so these people have been cut down by law enforcement and released. Instead, the police force of the city have had no choice but to launch an investigation against this supposed vigilante.
No arrests have been made at this time.