Man hides in washroom of electronics showroom overnight, walks out next morning with expensive mobile phones

According to the police, the thief works in a restaurant at BTM Layout. He had met a girl from Mangaluru on Instagram and wanted to impress her with an expensive gift

The thief went to the showroom at J.P. Nagar 2nd phase in Bengaluru posing as a customer and hid in the women’s restroom, on July 27, 2022. | Photo Credit: For representation only

When the staff of an electronic appliances showroom shut shop, little did they know that they had left behind someone in the store — a thief.

A 27-year-old man hid in the women’s restroom for the whole night to steal seven expensive mobile phones from the showroom in J.P. Nagar to gift it to his girlfriend. However, the accused Abdul Munaf, was tracked down by the police with the IMEI number after he started to use one of the stolen mobile phones.

According to the police, Munaf, a native of Purnea in Bihar, was working in a restaurant in BTM Layout. The accused had met a girl from Mangaluru on Instagram and wanted to impress her with expensive gift. He zeroed in on the showroom and surfed the internet on how to steal mobile phones from showroom and devised a plan.

As per the plan, on Wednesday , he visited the showroom in J.P. Nagar 2nd phase posing as a customer and hid in the women’s restroom. When the showroom was shut down and the staff went home, he ventured into the ground floor of the showroom, took seven expensive mobile phones, and returned to the washroom. He spent the whole night there and the next day, when the showroom was opened and the staff were busy , he took the lift to the basement and walked out.

While walking, he accidentally dropped one of the stolen phones, which was later recovered by the staff . The incident came to light when the staff checked the CCTV footage to find the man coming out of the washroom and grabbing expensive mobile phones .

The value of the stolen mobile phones was worth ₹5 lakh . Munaf had gifted one of the expensive mobiles to his girlfriend while keeping the remaining five mobiles with him. He started using one of the mobile phones.

Meanwhile, the police, who had registered a theft case, collected the IMEI number and once it was activated, the police tracked down Munaf and arrested him. The police recovered all the six stolen mobile phones from him and remanded him to judicial custody under theft case.