A young man in his late 20s is battling for his life after he was butchered in a botched attempt to steal dry cocoa beans at Osedzi in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District.

The victim, popularly known as Cape, was slashed open in the abdomen and left shoulder and bled profusely.

The owner of the cocoa beans by name Roman Father, who caught the victim in the act, also smashed his face on a wall multiple times, leaving him with a disfigured face and a swollen neck.

An witness, who pleaded anonymity, told the GNA that Cape and his two accomplices, all residents of Ajumako Kyebi, went to the adjoining community on Saturday, around 0300 hours with three sacks, allegedly to steal cocoa.

They were said to have found the cocoa on the compound of one man by name Roman Father, folded in a drying mat and the two accomplices positioned themselves as guards, turned off the lights and commenced operation.

Luck, however, eluded them when Father heard movements on his premises and silently sneaked out of his room with a machete, grabbed Cape and inflicted machete wounds on him.

The two accomplices, upon sensing danger, fled the scene.

A witness told GNA that Father kept Cape in his custody until about 1000 hours before taking him to the Ajumako District Police Station where he was asked to take him to Ajumako District Hospital.

Cape was stitched up and discharged the same day.