Laptop Lifting on Buses: Beware, looks can be deceiving!
If you are carrying a laptop and travelling on a bus, you should be a little cautious about the gentleman sitting next to you if he tries to distract you.
Such people appear gentle and well-dressed and carry empty laptop bags with them. They target passengers carrying laptops and sit next to them. Usually another gang member accompanies them.
The person distracts his target by making comments like “sit properly”, “please mind your leg” or “sit properly”. At any convenient moment, he or his accomplice opens the zip or cuts the laptop bag and puts the laptop into their bag.
Rajib Al Masud, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Detective Branch of police, spoke about this trick of stealing laptops yesterday after primarily interrogating six members of a gang arrested in the last two days.
The gang also used motorbikes to snatch laptops from passengers of rickshaws and pedestrians.
They sold the stolen laptops online for prices between Tk 8,000 and Tk 20,000.
“We have made the arrests conducting drives in the city's Mirpur, Paltan and Panthapath areas in the last 48 hours until early yesterday,” Rajib told The Daily Star.
He added that they have recovered 90 laptops from their possession and would return those to the real owners after proper verification.
The police identified the arrestees as Khalil Gazi, Abul Kalam, Emdadul Haq, Hasibur Rahman Shuvro, Monir Bepari and Mushfiqur Rahman.
Detectives first arrested Khalil, Kalam and Emdadul in Mirpur area. Following information gleaned from them, the law enforcers arrested their ringleader Monir.
“Monir admitted that after snatching a laptop they give it to Shuvro, who sells it online,” said Abdul Baten, joint commissioner of DB, while addressing a press briefing at the media and community centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Baten also said Mushfiqur is the owner of an electronics shop in Bashundhara City on Panthapath where he also used to sell the comparatively new stolen laptops.
The detective said they suspect the gang has more members and they are conducting drives in different areas to arrest them.
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