This 60-year-old five-star thief has a thing for laptops

The Delhi Police have arrested a 60-year-old thief who used to check into five-star hotels, stay for a couple of days and sneak out along with a laptop from the hotel without paying the bill. A resident of Thootukudi, Tamil Nadu, the accused Vincent John, has been stealing laptops and other expensive items and gadgets from five-star hotels across the country since 1996. 

Before embarking on the path of theft, John was a tourist guide in Puducherry. The police said after he had a fight with his employers, he left his job and devised this modus operandi where he would stay at a hotel for few days and leave it with laptops in his suitcase. He is fluent in English. The hotel staff never suspected his ulterior motives and always fell for his tricks, said the police. 

The police said that John has targeted around 300 hotels till now. He has been convicted in some of the cases and had just been released from a Kerala jail on October 14 this year in one such case. John revealed to the investigators that he had set a goal of stealing laptops from 18 hotels of the national capital. John was arrested near a hotel in southeast Delhi's Okhla on November 26.

The police said John had been under their radar since last year when a case was registered against him in Dwarka North police station after he had stolen a laptop from Radisson Blu Hotel in Dwarka sector 13 in December 2015.  In his complaint, an official from Radisson Blu Hotel had told the police that John had booked a room via a telephone call. He checked into the hotel with a small suitcase claiming that the payment would be done by his son later.

During his two day stay at the hotel, John smoked 16 packets of cigarettes, took a spa massage and drank expensive liquor. The complainant further said in his complaint that John also requested for a laptop from the hotel staff which was given to him. However, the next day he left the hotel without informing anyone with the laptop and without paying his dues. The police caught him near hotel Crown Plaza in Okhla after his calls were traced and intercepted.