• 24 cases of mobile thefts reported in one year
• Victims bumped into to snatch costly gadgets 
• Zebra Crossings and footpaths are target points

Mysuru/Mysore:  It’s a cool morning and you are out on the road, earphones plugged in, listening to music as you walk or cross a road. Suddenly, two people bump into you and snatch your mobile out of your hand, and run away. Or they might act like helping you and snatch your phone after your attention is diverted.

In a split second, your world feels like its crashing around you. The smart phone, which has all your information, right from banking to stock portfolios and messaging data, social media, mobile wallets and mails, is now gone. This is the stuff of nightmares, but it has come true for a lot of people, unfortunately. Mobile phone thefts from people who are on the move have become a commonplace and there’s little one can do once the mobile is gone, apart from lodging a Police complaint and hoping for the best.

With these mobile phone thieves on the prowl, walking without fear even on busy streets of the city is becoming a nightmare for many. Police say that mobile phone-snatchers have added more to the menace created by chain-snatchers in city. 

From January 2019 to December 2019, 24 cases of mobile-snatching have been reported from Devaraja, Lashkar, Nazarbad, Udayagiri, Alanahalli, Narasimharaja, Vijayanagar, Saraswathipuram and Kuvempunagar Police Stations. Of them, 20 cases have been detected and 25 phones recovered. 

Doctor targeted

On Dec. 22, the mobile phone of Dr. N. Sriram, Consultant Pathologist, Bhagavan Pathology Laboratory in city, was snatched on the busy stretch near Sri Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple, near Palace North Gate. The doctor was crossing the main road after parking his car at the designated spot.

Narrating his experience to Star of Mysore, Dr. Sriram said, “On that day at around 6.30 pm, I was crossing the road near the Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple after parking my car at Town Hall. An autorickshaw came suddenly on a Zebra Crossing towards K.R. Circle (Old Statue Square) and was about to collide with me. I almost fell while avoiding the auto and two persons came to my help and held me. Later I realised that my expensive mobile phone from my shirt pocket was missing as my attention was distracted. I realised this after they fled the spot,” he said.

Dr. Sriram suspected that the auto driver too might be involved. “As the two persons held me, I heard the auto driver saying in Kannada ‘Bega Hatthi’ (climb the auto fast),” he said.

Having lost his gadget that had two SIM cards, the doctor rushed to Devaraja Police Station and a case was registered. An FIR (382/2019) was booked and the complaint had all the details including the IMEI numbers. 

“While I was at Devaraja Police Station, another elderly couple (tourists) also came to the Police Station to give a similar complaint of mobile phone theft. They too had lost the phone near the Palace and going by their narration, it looked like the similar modus operandi was employed by thieves here too,” he said.

Modus operandi

The modus operandi of the mobile phone thieves is to target victims at Zebra Crossings in the heart of the city like K.R. Circle, Hardinge Circle, JLB Road Junction, Metropole Circle and other areas in the Central Business District. Cases have been reported from Lashkar, Devaraja, Nazarbad and KR Police Stations. 

Police said that either the victims are bumped into while crossing the road or a two-wheeler stops by and the pillion rider snatches the mobile phone either from the hands or shirt pocket. Some victims are made to trip and fall on the road to divert their attention and the costly gadgets are seized. Police said that after the phone is snatched, the SIM card is removed and the instrument’s software is changed with technology and the phone is either used or sold off.

Police increase surveillance, night beat

Cell phone thefts have also been reported from the outskirts of the city and in layouts and extensions where victims who walk after dinner chatting on their phones are targeted and their phones are snatched.

DCP (Crime and Traffic) B.T. Kavitha told SOM that mobile phone thefts have come to the notice and the Department has taken certain measures to combat the crime.

Night beat by Inspectors, ACPs and DCPs have been increased and all the patrol vehicles have been asked to be alert. Also, there is 24×7 monitoring of the Central Business District and suspicious persons filmed on CCTV cameras at the Command Centre at Police Commissioner’s Office are being rounded off after information is passed on to the jurisdictional Police, she explained. 

An Investigating Officer said that they suspect most of the muggers are college dropouts or unemployed youths.

“They do not have money to buy drugs, liquor and sometimes even to fill fuel for their vehicles, so they resort to snatching mobile phones to sell it in the grey market. We are making efforts to nab them,” the officer said.