It was a stealthy joytrip to Maharashtra by five adventurous boys gone awry. Everything went well for the footloose lads till the police traced them, by tracking down the phone of the father of one of them which had been taken away .
How did they fund the trip? One of the boys had stolen his father’s debit card and used it to meet the expenses.
According to the police, the boys, aged 14 to 16 years, are studying at a private school and are residents of Hongasandra, near Silk Board Junction.
On Sunday, one of them was checking his father’s mobile phone and was reading messages. A message from the bank showed the balance in his account at more than Rs 1 lakh.
The boy managed to lay his hands on his father’s card and kept it in his schoolbag. On Monday, he told his friends about the debit card and the money. They decided to go on a trip. They discussed and finalised Maharashtra as the destination. They went to a cyber centre and booked bus tickets online to Maharashtra using the debit card number, police said.
“Parents found that their children had not returned home from school. They went to the school and saw that the premises was locked. They then realised all five had gone together. They waited till late night, but none returned home. They approached the Bommanahalli police and registered a missing complaint,” said a senior police officer.
“One of the parents found that his mobile phone was lost and informed the police, who traced the phone to Maharashtra. We called up the number and found that the phone was with the boys. We informed our Maharashtra counterparts, who took the children into their custody. A team has been sent to bring back the children,” the officer said.