Did you read the whole article? The man they beat and burned to death was not the thief.
"A man in his 70s walked out, tucking a stack of bills worth $5 into a hat that he then hid in his jacket . . . Bernal grabbed the cash and started running . . . The mob went through Bernal's pockets and handed a wad of bills to the old man: The equivalent of $5. They doused Bernal's head and chest in gasoline and flicked a lighter. And they stood back as he burned alive (taken from the article out of order) . . . Bernal was taken away in an ambulance on a cross-city quest to find a hospital with enough medical supplies to deal with his injuries."
While the article says those who attacked him had no evidence that they had the right guy, I missed any reference to Bernal not being the criminal.
It sounds to me like the mob got the right guy. It would be better if the police and the courts could and would deal with petty criminals, but they have systematically failed. The old man's life man depend on the money that was stolen; I have no sympathy for the thief.