‘Sleeping Thief’, Who Used To Whisk Away Valuables While Lying Down, Caught at Mathura Rly Station

Mathura: A ‘sleeping thief’ at Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura railway station, who caught attention with the surprising modus operandi at the railway station to steal passenger’s belongings, was ultimately caught by the team of Government Railway Police (GRP). The railway police identified and arrested the accused while probing the numerous complaints received by passengers over the past few days. The accused, who particularly used to steal passenger’s expensive belongings, was also captured on CCTV camera while committing the crimes.

The modus operandi came to fore after the team of GRP started scanning CCTV footage from the many cameras on the station premises. The act of the accused took everyone by surprise, when they noticed him.

In the CCTV camera, installed inside the passengers' waiting room showed the accused very quietly and cleverly moving between some sleeping passengers. The man was captured looking around, apparently to check if someone's watching.

After ensuring that no one is noticing him, the accused slowly puts his hand in the pocket of a sleeping passenger, while keeping a close watch on any sign of trouble. He kept trying multiple times to fish out the mobile phone from the passenger’s pocket and eventually managed to do so.

After getting a hand on the mobile phone from one passenger, he then very swiftly moves to the next passenger. He then very slowly shifts his position to lie down right next to another passenger and manages to pull out his phone as well, while making sure the victim doesn’t get a hint of his activity. He then gets up and leaves the waiting room with his loot.

After noticing the incident, the culprit was identified, railway police did not waste time in catching him. Twenty-one-year-old Avnish Singh, a resident of Etah district, was arrested yesterday. A mobile phone was recovered from him, and police said he has admitted to stealing five phones. Avnish now faces a case of theft and police are working to recover the stolen items.