People shop inside a store selling Samsung mobile phones and accessories in Mumbai
Credit: Reuters File photo
Bengaluru: A 27-year-old naked man ransacked a mobile phone shop in southern Bengaluru and made off with 80 mobile phones on May 9, police sources said.
The incident occurred around 2 am and came to light when the owner of the shop, located in Bommanahalli, opened it around 9 am.
Ekram Mullah Hussain, a resident of Arekere, used a garden tiller to carve a large hole in the wall of the mobile shop and attempted to crawl through it. Realising that his clothes were obstructing his entry and might get dirty, he removed them and entered the shop completely naked.
Over the next 20 minutes, he grabbed 80 mobile phones, bundled them in a large piece of cloth, and tied it up. To ensure the bundle could pass through the hole, he removed a few phones from it before crawling out.
"He dressed up again and fled the scene with the bag of mobile phones and the garden tiller on his scooter,” an investigator told DH.
After the shopkeeper filed a police complaint, investigators reviewed the shop’s CCTV footage and found that the suspect was completely naked, except for a surgical face mask. “We tracked the suspect through CCTV cameras in the surrounding area and eventually arrested him near his residence in Arekere,” the investigator added.
Investigations revealed that Hussain is originally from Assam and had moved to Bengaluru about four months ago. He had been working as a housekeeper.
The police stated that on May 8, Hussain had visited the same mobile phone shop with a friend to buy a good Android phone. However, he didn’t have enough money. He surveyed the shop and returned home.
Unwilling to give up on getting a new phone, he decided to steal one instead. While planning the break-in, he realised the risk involved. Given the effort, he thought it would be more worthwhile to steal several phones to make quick money.
Around 2 am, he returned to the location and spent at least 30 minutes carving the large hole before entering the shop, police said.