'General's son' mobbed

KUTA, Bali: A man, claiming to be the son of a retired Army general, was beaten black and blue by an angry mob in Legian, Kuta, some 12 kilometers west of Denpasar, for refusing to pay for the dozens of clothes he picked from a department store on Friday.

The incident took place at the More Core Division store after shop assistant Angelic Oktavia asked the man, later identified as Hendri Tjahyono, to pay for the clothes he had just selected from the store.

"He gave me a Lippo credit card. But our card verifier rejected it," Angelic said, adding that the man forced her to accept the card, saying he was the son of an Army general who was once chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali.

"When we were arguing, people started to gather around but the man got upset and verbally abused them. They lost their patience and started mobbing him," she said.

Kuta riot police chief Second Insp. Ida Bagus Suastika said the man was very lucky because "policemen arrived at the right time to save him." (zen)