A chicken thief was killed in Kampot province on Monday night after accidentally electrocuting himself while attempting to disconnect a lightbulb inside a farmer’s coop, police said on Tuesday.
Vein Nhen, 36, had already stuffed two sacks full of hens from a bamboo coop behind a house in Chumkiri district’s Trapaing Raing commune and was in the process of filling a third sack when he decided to cut through a wire leading to a lightbulb inside the coop with a pair of metal scissors, according to Sok Sakann, a coroner for the provincial police.
He explained that the light was programed to come on twice each night to encourage the chickens to eat.
“The thief couldn’t easily catch the chickens with the light on, so he cut the wire,” the coroner speculated.
Deputy provincial police chief Sao Sam Oeun said that Vein Nhen, a resident of neighboring Snay Anhchit commune, was found dead in the chicken coop early Tuesday morning, with a black mask over his face and a hammer tucked into his belt.
He said the thief was killed by his own greed.
“If he had just taken the two sacks he already had, he wouldn’t have died.”
