BENGALURU: A police inspector found himself to be the latest victim of theft by attention diversion when his iPhone was stolen from his car on Mysore Road amid slow-moving traffic. Sanjeev Kumar Mahajan (47), a police inspector with the State Intelligence Department, lost his phone worth Rs 45,000 on April 3, at 8 pm.
Manhajan, who has worked in many police stations, such as Halsurgate, JP Nagar, Hulimavu and the Criminal Investigation Department, was on his way home to Gottigere after work. He was driving through Mysore Road when he got stuck in traffic at KIMCO Junction. Suddenly, a man started banging on his left window repeatedly. Mahajan thought he hit someone while driving, so he rolled down the window.
“Meanwhile, another man started banging the right window of my car so hard that it seemed as if he was going to crack the glass. I rolled down the right window to check what was happening,” Mahajan said, adding, “The person who banged on the right window asked me to go ahead in Hindi, and by the time I turned to the left side, I found that the miscreant banging on the left window had stolen my phone and escaped.”
Though Manhajan wanted to catch them, he did not want to take the risk, as he was in his plain clothes and in his personal car. “There are possibilities of miscreants carrying weapons and attacking us when we try to catch them. So I did not make an effort to catch them. The person who banged on the right side also ran away,” Mahajan added.
Mahajan filed a complaint with Byatarayanapura police the next day. An investigating officer said, “We have taken up a case of theft and are investigating. According to Mahajan, the duo were between 20 and 25 years. We are verifying the CCTV cameras installed on Mysore Road to ascertain the deatils of the duo.”