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New Delhi rattled by woman driver who seeks directions to snatch cellphones

NEW DELHI: She is a phone thief but her deception is impossible to read — a woman in her twenties, drives a white Honda Brio, wears branded clothes with matching

Published on: Oct 8, 2016, 06:27:18 IST
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NEW DELHI: She is a phone thief but her deception is impossible to read — a woman in her twenties, drives a white Honda Brio, wears branded clothes with matching accessories and speaks fluent English.

HT Image
HT Image

She targets students carrying smart phones or tablets. Stops the car to ask for directions, tells the target she has run out of battery and borrows the unsuspecting guy’s phone on the pretext of calling a friend waiting at a restaurant. She then drives off, with the phone. The woman, who has become a mystery for police despite four teams trying to catch her, has stolen mobile phones and tablets from four students in the past three days.

Her latest crime was reported from northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.

“I really believed she was in trouble and had lost her way. She looked educated and from an affluent background,” said Chetna, a complainant, who was robbed of her tablet.

Chetna even stepped back a little to not appear intruding into the woman’s privacy after she gave her tablet for the thief to talk to a friend. “She pretended to make a call … started the car and accelerated. I ran after her, but she was gone.”

She reported the theft to police, who took a similar complaint from another woman a few minutes later. Her mobile phone was stolen.

“Three cases were reported on Wednesday and another on Friday. No one seems to remember her car registration number,” an officer said. “She looks for easy targets, mostly students at Mukherjee Nagar, which is a hub of coaching institutes.”

Police are examining CCTV footage from areas where the crimes were reported.

  • Snehal Tripathi
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Snehal Tripathi

    Snehal Tripathi covers crime and policing in Delhi. A trained electronic and electrical engineer, she always wanted to be a journalist, starting this journey with the hyper-local edition of Hindustan Times in south Delhi.Read More