Corruption is a widespread problem in Mexico, but few incidents are as brazen as that of a police officer caught stealing items from a store in Tabasco on Sunday.
The municipal police officer, named in the video as Antonio, helped himself to candy and medications at a supermarket in the city of Comalcalco.
Workers shared a video on social media of the uniformed officer emptying his pockets under orders by store staff.
In the recording, the officer stacks up a pile of products from his trouser pockets, his backpack and from under his shirt.
“Everything you’ve got, everything. The chocolates, the medications. Take it out,” a staff member demanded.
“There’s nothing more,” Antonio protested in vain.
“This is an absolute massacre,” the staff member said, evidently surprised by the number of products in Antonio’s possession. “Lower the face mask please,” the staff member added, apparently to ensure that the police officer was identifiable in the video.
Antonio was later fired by the Comalcalco government. In a letter announcing the dismissal, the head of the municipality’s Public Security Ministry, Eddy Herrera Córdova, said the officer had shown “reprehensible conduct.”
Herrera added that citizens should still trust local security forces. He promised “not to tolerate conduct that breaks the law … rejecting at all times any act or oversight on the part of public servants that affects this institution.”
With reports from El Universal and El Heraldo de Tabasco
