Impulsive shoplifter who had a fetish for handbags
An almirah full of handbags and purses - 37 to be precise - mobile phones, jewellery, ATM cards and cash. HT reports.
An almirah full of handbags and purses - 37 to be precise - mobile phones, jewellery, ATM cards and cash.
When the Delhi police apprehended 50-year-old housewife Satya Gandhi for shoplifting on Friday, the recovery of stolen items from her house took them by surprise.
Gandhi didn't need to steal and shoplift to support her family, it was her obsession and she claims to be a kleptomaniac. Though she began shoplifting to help her family that has incurred losses in business, it soon became a habit.
"Satya wanted to make good for the losses incurred by her family. She started lifting hand bags and purses of women in crowded markets. Her family members once discovered about this and asked her to stop doing this. At this she answered she is kleptomaniac and could not resist the temptation of lifting handbags," P Karunakaran, DCP (northwest) said.
Gandhi was apprehended from Rani Bagh market on Friday by the husband of a woman whose bag she had lifted earlier. Eight mobile phones, a laptop , some ATM cards in different names and 37 handbags and purses, two gold chains, 10 Singapore Dollars, R6,000 in cash, two gold chains and one pair of ear-rings have been recovered from her house.
"She had an almirah, in which she kept stolen articles without bringing this to the notice of other family members," Karunakaran added.
Despite repeated objections by her family, Gandhi would not listen to them.
She allegedly used to carry a big handbag herself, containing four to five small purses of different colour and shapes. At times she used to remove the purse of the victim and then would slide it in her big handbag or used to replace it with a similar purse kept in her bag.
Police said that on September 5, the bag of a woman was stolen from the counter of a shop in Rani Bagh Market. They identified the accused woman in a CCTV installed outside the shop but the victim did not file a complaint as she had to immediately leave for Bihar.
However two days later, her husband went to the same market to get some grocery and saw Gandhi. He stopped her and informed the police.