Violence

Two Men Killed for Allegedly Stealing Potatoes
Associated Press, August 3, 1999

Two men allegedly trying to steal potatoes from private vegetable plots were beaten to death outside a central Russian city, a news report said Tuesday (Aug. 30). ITAR-Tass reported that the gardens' owners admitted having beaten the men Monday night after catching them with the potatoes in a suburb of Ulyanovsk, a Volga River city 720 kilometers (430 miles) east of Moscow. The report did not say if the killers were arrested. The bodies of the two men were found on a dirt road, twelve fresh potatoes in a sack nearby, the report said. Many Russians rely on vegetables grown from private plots, and thefts can deprive them of their major source of food. Six thieves were killed in vegetable gardens elsewhere in Ulyanovsk last month, ITAR-Tass said.