Happy ending to Mumbai theft drama

Teen loses nerve, returns phone stolen from assistant cinematographer’s house

Photo call: S. Babu Rao with Ranveer Singh

For assistant cinematographer S. Babu Rao, the reunion with his stolen cell phone could have come straight out of a Bollywood flick, several of which he has worked on. As he fretted over the phone, stolen from a window at his Saki Naka residence, the thief, all contrite, came back to return it two hours later.

On May 9, Mr. Rao, who was part of the production teams for Barfi , Bodyguard , Love Aaj Kal and Teen Patti , was working on his laptop using his cell phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot, when the connection dropped around 1 p.m. “I had placed the phone on a window sill for better network reception. When I went to check, it was gone. Some locals said they had seen a few young men loitering in the vicinity. A nearby building with CCTV cameras refused to share the footage with me, so I approached the police.”

Twist in the tale

At Saki Naka police station, PSI Rahul Waghmare heard him out and sent two constables with him to obtain CCTV footage from the building. The footage showed one of three youth stealing Mr Rao’s phone around 12.58 p.m. The constables recorded the relevant footage. “A local informant was shown the footage, who said the ‘job would be done’. I told Mr. Rao that we would inform him when we had results, and to return home.” Mr. Waghmare said. Two constables were deputed to search for the thief with the informant’s help.

When he reached home half-an-hour later, Mr. Rao found a young man waiting for him. He asked Mr. Rao if he had lost a phone, and pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over when he replied in the affirmative. “He told me his friend had asked him to return it. I insisted on meeting the person responsible. With much reluctance, he took me to the thief, a visibly scared teen who knew the police were on his trail. He tried to touch my feet, apologised profusely and promised to never steal again. However, I convinced him to come to the police station with me,” Mr. Rao said.

The boy, a local resident, promised the police he would never steal again, and Mr. Rao said he wasn’t keen on filing an FIR.