Manchester memorial flower thieves caught red-handed

  • 01/06/2017

A Manchester man has confronted a pair of men who appeared to be deliberately stealing flowers from a memorial for those who died in last week's bombing at an Ariana Grande concert.

In footage posted to YouTube, Mark McNally can be seen calling the men out for their thievery, before yelling at them until they put what they'd apparently stolen back on the memorial.

The video comes just over a week after a terror attack killed 22 people and injured 120 at Manchester Arena, where Grande had been performing to 21,000 people.

Walking towards them as he notices that they've picked up flowers off the memorial, Mr McNally can be heard calling them "f**king bastards" under his breath before calling out at them.

"What are you playing at lads? What are you playing at f**king nicking flowers?" he asks, clearly incensed.

"No, no, I like flowers - flowers very nice," one of the men replies in broken English.

"No, no, you were picking them up, weren't you? You was gonna f**k off with them," Mr McNally challenged once more, drawing a nonsensical response from the men.

Mr McNally then looks at what they're holding - and it becomes clear that they haven't just attempted to steal away with flowers, but with a small Smurf plush toy, too.

"Where'd you get that from? Put them back, now," Mr McNally demanded, following the men as they return to the memorial.

At one point, one of the men tries to protest his innocence, saying, "I don't know [what] this [is]" about the memorial, which homes hundreds of bouquets.

"What do you mean you don't know? You f**king know what's gone on!" Mr McNally retorts.

After more arguments and apologies, the men then agree to return the flowers and leave the memorial site - but not without a parting shot from Mr McNally.

"You better f**k off from here or I'll call the police. If the police don't come, I'll knock the sh*t out the pair of ya," he said.

"How's that? Now f**k off."

Newshub.