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29 March 2024

Falling on pedestrians to pick their pockets is this thief's modus operandi

Published
By Eman Al Baik

A pedestrian robbed a man while crossing the road when he pretended to fall back on him and picked his pocket in broad daylight.

At around 11.30am on May 1, 2012, the victim AMM, 35, clerk in a tourist company, was assigned to collect Dh49,985, sent by the company’s client, from a money exchange.

“I went alone to the exchange on Naif Street. I collected the amount and put it in the right pocket of my trousers; I walked back to my company. A man walking in front of me leaned back and fell on me. I held him and pushed him back to support him against the fall. He turned and I came face to face with him. Then he put his two hands on my two pockets. I realised that he was trying to take  the money from my pocket. Then he hit on my left leg and ran away. I tried to chase him but could not because of the traffic. I went back to the company and notified the manager and the police,” the victim testified.

A few days later, the victim received a call from Dubai Police asking him to come for identification. “I recognised the accused when shown to me in an identification parade,” he testified.

First Corporal Anwar Musaad testified that he was assigned to investigate the complaint.

“I identified some accused that follow the same modus operandi. The victim recognised one of them when shown their pictures. The accused, who was in police custody in another theft case, was summoned and identified by the victim," he said.

The prosecution noted that the accused has been involved in a number of theft cases and was recognised by the victims. The court had sentenced him to six months in jail followed by deportation in one of the cases.

The accused tried to run away when he was caught with others during one of the thefts.

The prosecution asked the court to award the stiffest penalty against the accused. The court will issue its verdict on February 24.

 

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