MADURAI: In a second incident in less than a week in the district, a school boy was arrested for stealing four mobile phones from a house on Sunday night.
Police said, the boy, son of a daily wager, was a class IX student of a government school in Avaniyapuram.
Meanwhile, there was a death in the house of G Manimaran (25), a neighbour of the boy. As several relatives turned up for mourning, the house remained open through out the night and they were sleeping in different places.
Turning the situation to his advantage, the boy sneaked into the house and walked away with four mobile phones, including an expensive smart phone, from the TV stand.
The boy later reportedly sold the smart phone for Rs 1,000 and other models for Rs 200 to Rs 500 to a college student, a police officer said.
But, it was the same college student who helped us to nab the culprit. “Soon after buying the phone, the student inserted a new SIM card and turned it on. As we were tracking the IMEI number, it led us to the student and subsequently to the boy,” the officer said.
The police said that the boy arrested in this case had no past antecedents, but he had recently developed acquaintance with some juveniles who were arrested for petty thefts. This might have instigated the boy to indulge in the theft of cell phones.
The group of juveniles, had allegedly sold their text books to a scrap shop to buy alcohol and cigarettes. The boy arrested in the present case has been remanded and sent to the Observation Home for Boys and Girls in Madurai, police said.
Only on last Tuesday, a Class 7 student was arrested by the Nagamalai Pudukottai police for allegedly stealing two sovereigns of jewels from a neighbour’s house.