Mangalore: Habitual mobile phone thief chased, caught by alert taxi drivers

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore

Mangalore, Sep 1: Taxi drivers on Saturday August 31 caught a thief who was in the habit of stealing mobile phones from taxi drivers after hiring their vehicles. The thief was later handed over to police.

The accused is identified as Zakir Hussain (45), resident of Krishnapur fourth block.

Mulky, Padubidri and Mangalore taxi drivers joined hands to catch the thief after they learnt of similar theft incidents from newspapers in these parts.

The thief had already targetted Mulky and Padubidri taxi drivers and the next targets were drivers from Kaup, Pangala and Katapady. However, the drivers in these three areas were already alert about such a thief lurking around.

Police recovered two mobile phones and 3 sim cards from the accused. He also had two Re 1 coins in purse, it is learnt.

Two years back, Hussain had come back from Dubai and was unemployed ever since. He turned thief to earn his living, it is said. The mobile phones stolen by him so far were sold for a price ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1000, said the police.

It is said that Hussain used to take the taxi drivers to Ullal and take their mobile phone on the pretext of making a call, and then disappear. Investigation should be done to know the reason behind Hussain taking the taxi drivers to Ullal, said DK Taximen’s association chief secretary Anand K.

From the past 4 days, Hussain allegedly looted mobiles phone from taxi driver in areas like Padubidri, Mulky, Mangalore old bus stand, railway station and in addition to that, he did not pay the taxi fare, it is learnt.

On Saturday morning, an unidentified person approached a taxi driver and said that he wanted to hire his taxi to go towards Udyavar wedding hall and then towards Ullal in Mangalore. Accordingly, the driver took him to Halima Sabu hall.

The driver grew suspicious of the man’s behavior in the wedding hall and passed on the information to Udupi taximen's association.

As soon as the information was obtained by the taxi drivers' association, they informed secretary Ramesh Kotian who later informed Padubidri taxi drivers and both the groups chased the thief.

The Padubidri taxi drivers travelled towards Katapady and as they reached Yermal, they found the taxi hired by the thief and intercepted the vehicle near Padubidri petrol bunk.

The drivers caught hold of the thief and beat him up, after which he admitted that he had stolen several mobile phones over the past few days. He was later handed over to Kaup police.