Two ATM thieves have sent police and bank officials into a tizzy. The duo stole Rs. 4.92 lakh from an ATM in the last week of June. Bank officials were clueless on how the thieves made good with money without the transaction reflecting in the accounts and neither was the machine broken open.
The police groped in the dark, as there was no other clue apart from the CC TV footage, and when checked with the national police database, the facial features did not match with any criminal with a record.
Modus operandi
What surprised them was the modus operandi . It was the smartest move that the bank officials and the police had seen in the recent times.
Finally, when two engineering students Swapnil Singh and Satyarth Mishra were caught in Kanpur, it was revealed that they picked up the modus operandi after watching a few videos that were uploaded on the YouTube.
Social media, online sites and films, have become the learning ground for many of the crime that is taking place in the present day, said ACP (Dwaraka Zone) Ramachandra Rao.
Both the engineering students saw a similar ATM heist on the YouTube that took place in Gujarat some time ago and smartly replicated it Visakhapatnam after travelling all the way from Kanpur.
In another incident, 20-year-old Manikanta, student of private ITI and resident of Gopalapatnam, faked his kidnap to extort money from his parents to fund his vices, on Monday, inspired by a Telugu flick.
The exposure to different kinds of media at young age is having an adverse impact on young minds, the ACP noted.
Not only thefts, even suicides and murders are being influenced by television shows, movies and online videos, said a senior police officer.
COMMents
SHARE