In Karachi life is stranger than fiction, but mercifully CCTV and the police can sometimes reduce our sense of disorientation.

At about 9:03am on Sunday, our crime reporter Anusha Jafri shared a video on the Karachi reporting WhatsApp group, which at first seemed like a brave act of stupidity. It turned out to be much much more.

It shows two young men with a dog which looks like a huskie (although in this heat, poor dog), taking pictures. As with all CCTV footage, you hold your breath because you are expecting something to enter the frame to suddenly ratchet up the drama. In this case, the expectation was a motorcycle ride with a gun. I was expecting a classic mobile phone snatching.

I was not disappointed. The motorcycle appears from the left, stops and one of the scrawny lads hops off to intimidate the guy with the phone. A gun is clearly visible in his right hand.

I had expected that the boy with the phone would do the smart thing and just hand over the phone, but he pushed the attacker back and the two scuffled. Miraculously, he manages to not only overpower the armed attacker but also scare off the rider and chase them out of the street. This happened in Nazimabad No 1.

There was, however, something odd about the boy with the dog on the leash. Usually when such street crime happens, you see people around the victim skedaddle. In this case, the boy with the leash had a strange reaction. He just wandered around.

The clue was also with the dog, which would have reacted if its owner was attacked. Instead it stood around calmly.

The video went on social media and the police intervened. What they discovered would have most certainly irritated them. Here is a pared down transcript of what they told the police:

Police: What’s your name?

Boy 1: Abdur Rehman

Police: The dog was with you?

Boy 1: Yes

Police: And this guy (in red) was shooting the video?

Boy 1: Yes

Police: And these two others (boy 3, 4) are your friends that we see in CCTV footage? That we see come to snatch the mobile phone?

Boy 1: Yes

Police: This was a plan by three of you?

Boy 1: We were doing masti.

Police: You were riding the bike? Whose bike was it?

Boy 3: It was Abdur Rehman’s

Police: So the plan was to snatch his mobile phone

Boy 4: Yes, the plan was to snatch his mobile phone, and then went he’d start to cry, then five minutes later we’d give it back. You know, dosti-yaari me you prank someone. But then…

Police: Who bought the pistol?

Boy 4: He did. It’s not a pistol. It’s fake.

Boy 1: I bought it for fun.

Police: So you all four know each other. Why were you wearing a mask?

Boy 4: He knew us, so we wore the mask so he wouldn’t recognise us. But when he grabbed us he pulled the mask and… but the police said they wouldn’t let us go.

Police: How long have you known each other?

Boy 4: About a month. We met on Instagram.

SSP District Central has urged people to keep an eye on their children. The CPLC has said that 57 people were killed in October while resisting robberies or street crime and security experts have always said it is not advisable to take a risk. Street criminals can be nervous and jittery and if their gun goes off, the price is too high to pay.

With writing by Mahim Maher