Forensic files: Social media, hair-line scratch... criminals busted in hours

An Asian did not think that asking for car lift will make him victim of thieves who will steal all his money and belongings.

Details of the case showed that the man took a lift from two Asian men from a petrol station in Sharjah to Dubai. However, he did not know that those who offered to help him were thieves and would rob him.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Brigadier Ahmed Matar Al Muhairi, Head of the General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology of Dubai Police said that this is one of the funny incidents where the thieves were shocked when they were arrested within few hours.

“In this case, the man did not have a car, and he asked few Asian men for help to drop him from a petrol station in Sharjah to Dubai. When they reached a petrol station in Dubai, the thieves offered to buy him a cup of tea and he agreed happily. The suspects, however, mixed something with the tea that made the man lose his consciousness after drinking it. The man woke up on the side of the road, and the cup of tea was next to him but the thieves have stolen his money and other belongings.”

Brigadier Al Muhairi added that the man called police for help.

“Our experts took the cup to the laboratory, took the fingerprints off it, and identified the suspects within few hours and the suspects already had criminal records.”

He added that when police raided that suspect’s house to arrest him, he was shocked to be arrested so soon after the robbery.

“The suspect asked the officers if someone had identified him at the petrol station and reported him to police. He did not know or realise that the fingerprints on the tea cup led the police directly to him.”

He added that Dubai Police is known for solving most of the cases within a few hours, and this case had created one of the best records in the world.

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Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Lt. Col. Ahmed Matar Al Muhairi, Head, General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology, Dubai Police, said they were surprised when this child, who is a TV presenter on one of the children’s channels, sought their help.

“She is very famous among the children and families. She complained that her Instagram and Snapchat accounts have been hacked. She wanted her accounts back, and our experts helped her to restore her accounts within half-an-hour.”

“This is a service which we offer as social service to people we know and trust. We have special relationships with big organisations such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and many others. We get their help in such cases.”

Lt. Col. Muhairi said the hacker was from another country, and so they did not take action against him.

Hairline car scratch leads Dubai cops to ATM looters

A hairline scratch on a car led Dubai Police to solve an ATM robbery. Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Lt. Col. Ahmed Matar Al Muhairi, Head, General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology, Dubai Police, said this case was solved because of the latest hi-tech machines that the department has.

“One of the Northern Emirates sought our help to prove that three Asian suspects had stolen an ATM machine, as well as a payment machine of one of the telecommunication companies in the UAE. When we started investigation, it was very difficult to find an evidence and link it to the suspects,” Lt. Col. Muhairi explained.

The suspects had carried the ATM and the payment machine to the desert, where they broke open the machines, took the cash and abandoned them there before fleeing, he said.

Lt. Col. Muhairi said that the machines found in the desert had no fingerprints on them. They were cleaned well.

“There was no evidence. However, we have our own ways to find out. We checked the cars of the suspects, and found the evidence. There was a hairline scratch on the rear of the car. We have special machines through which we compared the paints of that scratch against the ATM machine and found it to be same.”

Lt. Col. Muhairi added that Dubai Police has invested heavily in advanced machines, and this is the result of such investments.

“If we were to depend on the old ways of looking for finger-prints, then these thieves would have escaped,” he said and added that the men spent most of the money they stole on their girlfriends and drugs.

“One of them admitted that he bought a new car for his girlfriend, while the other gave his girlfriend huge amounts of money,” Lt. Col. Muhairi said.

“This is a new type of crime in the UAE, and a strange one at that. But we are one step ahead of the criminals by investing in new technologies as well as our human resource,” he added.

(Image via Shutterstock)

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