BENGALURU: An unemployed graduate, who used to steal expensive items from shops, landed in the police net on Wednesday.
The thief, Syed Balli Nehari (30), a resident of Kammanahalli, took to thievery after he failed to get any job despite repeated attempts. He had got a customised underwear stitched, which was big enough to accommodate cameras, torches and binoculars
Balli visited malls and sports retail marts in and around the city and steal expensive goods. He dodged CCTV cameras and security guards until one day a CCTV camera at a mall caught him lifting an expensive camera which helped the police catch him.
The theft at the mall came to light when the store manager audited the stock and found the camera missing. When he went through the CCTV footage, he found Balli stuffing it inside his underwear. Later, mall officials filed a police complaint and Balli was arrested when he was trying to sell the camera.
During the interrogation, he confessed to the police that he visited malls and shops posing as a customer and stole expensive gadgets after removing tags. He revealed that his customised underwear helped him get out of the malls and shops easily.
The gadgets that were stolen by Syed Balli Nehari (inset)
He told the police that he recently visited a sports retail mart and stole riding glasses, a torch, a binocular and CCTV cameras worth Rs 45,000. He was at it for the last two years, but was never caught, the police said.
