‘This gold chain looks great’: Man uses flattery to steal jewelry

A man and a woman teamed up to steal gold chains from jewellery shops by sleight of hand.

By arresting Mohammed Sajjad Ali, 38, and Vaithegi alias Vithyagi, 46, police recovered 202-gram stolen gold chains worth Rs 7.55 lakh.

According to police, Ali stole the gold chains by diverting the shopkeepers’ attention while Vaithegi disposed them of and pocketed a 20% commission.

Ali, a resident of DJ Halli, is in the food catering business while Vaithegi, who is from Lingarajapuram, is in charge of housekeeping at a function hall. A team led by Basaveshwaranagar police inspector Krishnamurthy M L tracked them down while investigating the theft of a gold chain in Manjunathnagar.

Sunitha, 38, who runs Yashu Dry Fruits, told the police that a man posing as a customer had stolen her mangalya chain around 12.15 pm on May 21. The customer ordered all dry fruits in half-kilo quantities. As she got busy fulfilling the order, he complimented her on the chain design.

Claiming to be the owner of a jewellery store, he requested her to remove the chain and give it to him so that he could take its pictures and make a similar design in his store. On the pretext of taking photos, he diverted her attention and sneaked out with the 32-gram chain.

Tricks up their sleeve

Police investigations showed that Ali had targeted the owners of grocery, medical, sweets and other stores. He always placed bulk orders so that he got enough time to converse with the women. And he always praised the chain’s design and stole it on the pretext of taking their pictures.

Another trick was to introduce himself as a jeweller at some stores and offer to sell gold chains without levying any making, wastage or other charges.

He would give the stolen chain to Vaithegi who would pledge it at gold finance firms and pay him after taking a 20% cut.

The duo’s arrest helped the police crack two cases in Basaveshwaranagar, three in Nandini Layout and each one in Suddaguntepalya, Vijayanagar and Jalahalli. Police also seized two scooters.