Social media users have been circulating, in the last two days, a video of a thief who was caught red-handed in the Aley town of Btater.

Shockingly, the thief turned out to be a member of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ intelligence directorate.

“A patrol from the Btater municipality was driving between the houses of the town when its members saw two thieves outside one of the houses,” local media reported, noting that “when the patrol came closer, they tried to flee but it managed to arrest them.”

The arrested man shown in the video justified his act by saying he was in need in light of the dire living conditions the country is going through.

The video is a proof of the tough circumstances faced by the military amid a high U.S. dollar exchange rate and a collapse of the Lebanese pound. The basic monthly salary of a soldier or policeman, which used to amount to around $800, is worth around $65 today.

The Lebanese army has always been a source of safety for the people. But if this financial situation drags on, it is feared that the incident documented in the video would become commonplace.