Associated Press in Jakarta – An angry mob beat and burnt a man to death after he allegedly tried to steal a chicken from a coop outside a house on the outskirts of Jakarta, news reports said on Saturday.

The victim, 25, was killed early on Friday morning by villagers in Tangerang, just west of the capital, Kompas newspaper reported.

Lynchings have become increasing common as petty crime increases amid Indonesia's worst economic crisis in three decades. Many people who take the law into their own hands say that the police and judges are too corrupt to stop rising lawlessness.