Woman forgets mobile in shop, guard takes it

A Filipina guard in a readymade garment shop allegedly stole a mobile phone that a customer forgot in a fitting room, the Dubai Criminal Court.
 
TA claimed that she had bought the smart phone from an African woman she met in the mall’s washroom.
 
However, cameras did not show any African woman entering the shop’s fitting room but they showed a Gulf woman and a European woman besides the accused herself.
 
At around 2.30pm on June 5, MI, 38, Egyptian, accompanied her sister to Festival City for shopping. She entered a readymade garment shop and picked up a dress.
 
“I went to the fitting room to try the dress. I put my Galaxy Note4 on top of hangers in the room. After trying the dress, I left the room and returned home,” she said.
 
At around 3.30pm, my husband called me on my sister’s mobile and said my phone is switched off. I then remembered that I forgot the mobile in the fitting room,” said MI.
 
The customer rushed back to the shop and asked about her mobile. The security officer asked all workers in the shop including AT about the customer’s mobile but all denied seeing it, said HH, 27, Indian, in charge of the shop’s security.
 
The customer reviewed footage of CCTV and she saw two women enter the trial room after her. One was a Gulf national and the second was a European woman.
 
“Expecting that if a customer found the mobile in the fitting room, she would have handed it over to AT, I specifically asked AT in person and told her about the phone’s specifications.,” said MI.
 
AT denied before her senior that she was informed about a mobile phone lost in the fitting room. She also assured that no customer had handed over a phon .
 
The customer, who lost hope of finding the mobile in the shop, went to Rashidiya police station and lodged a complaint. She also tried to call her phone number but the mobile remained switched off.
 
Then the customer thought of blocking the set via the special Internet application if a phone is lost. She blocked it and left her husband’s mobile number to be contacted by any finder of the phone.
 
Three days after the incident, AT told her senior that she had bought a mobile phone from an African woman she met in the centre’s washroom for Dh300. However, she did not tell him about its specifications, testified the Indian security officer.
 
He also noted that he reviewed the camera footage in the shop and found out that AT was one of three women who entered the same fitting room after the complainant. 
 
“I did not see any African woman entering any of the fitting rooms on that day,” he testified.
 
He made this testimony although he had reviewed the camera footage in front of the complainant and on that day he showed her only two women entering the trial room behind her.
 
Nine days after the incident, on June 16, the customer’s husband received a phone call from AT telling him that the set is in her possession and that she had bought it from an African woman.
 
The husband asked the caller to hand over the set in Rashidiya police station.
 
The complainant recognized AT when she saw her at the police station.
 
Dubai Prosecution noted that the mobile phone was in AT’s possession despite of her knowledge that a set of the same description and specification was lost in the shop where she worked.

The court will give its verdict on September 8.

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