Motorcycle Owner Recounts Events Before Alleged Thief Beaten to Death in Morowali

A young man named Wawan Sudirman (33) died after being attacked by a mob in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi, on suspicion of being a motorcycle thief. The woman who owned the motorcycle Wawan allegedly tried to take has explained how the incident began.

The victim had initially come to a minimarket to buy milk, parking his vehicle with the key still left in the motorcycle. While inside, the owner said she saw Wawan get on her motorcycle and assumed he was only adjusting its parking position.

“(I said) ‘Oh, it looks like he’s going to move it’. Sometimes people do reposition motorbikes at Indomaret. ‘Oh, it looks like this person wants to move my motorbike’,” said the motorcycle owner in an audio recording, as reported by detikSulsel on Wednesday (29/7/2026).

Not long afterwards, the owner saw Wawan turn the key in the ignition and attempt to push the motorcycle out of the minimarket area. The owner immediately rushed out of the minimarket and chased after Wawan.

To the motorcycle’s owner, Wawan claimed he was trying to chase after his friend because his mobile phone had been stolen. However, the owner did not believe him as they did not know each other.

“Then he said again, ‘my phone fell on the road, I want to go and look for it’. I said, that makes no sense at all. Even the others told him he must be lying because it didn’t make sense that he wanted to chase a friend using my motorcycle. I don’t even know you,” she explained.

The situation then drew the attention of a number of workers around the location. Wawan reportedly admitted to the theft and ran into the minimarket to save himself before eventually becoming the target of the mob’s fury.