48 hours, five robberies and one theft: Robbers held after they forget to switch off GPS on stolen phone

In the span of 48 hours last week, a gang of four allegedly robbed five people and stole a motorcycle, all without using a gun or a knife. They made off with anything

In the span of 48 hours last week, a gang of four allegedly robbed five people and stole a motorcycle, all without using a gun or a knife. They made off with anything and everything they could lay their hands on -- from ₹100 cash they found on one victim to dairy products from a milk trader.

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But their luck soon ran out; they forgot to turn off the GPS on a phone they had snatched from a food delivery agent in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar.

“The GPS of that phone remained on. It led us to the exact location of the suspects and we apprehended them,” Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (South), said.

Until the lockdown, to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was announced, these men had operated individually, police said .

Three of them -- Vivek, Nagender and Raju -- already had 10 cases of robberies and thefts against each of them, had been arrested multiple times and were registered ‘bad characters (suspects with a long criminal history)’, the DCP said. The fourth member of the gang is a minor and his name has been withheld by the police.

Since they had access to just one stolen motorcycle, the four of them would ride out together posing as people in need of essential items.

“They mostly food delivery agents and dairy traders because they expected them to be carrying cash. Since the vehicles of these victims are generally loaded with goods, they thought they wouldn’t be in a position to fight back,” ACP Dhama said.

From the early hours of Friday to the early hours of Sunday, the gang allegedly robbed five people without meeting any resistance. The victims included three milk traders and two food delivery agents.

“On one milk trader, they could find only ₹100 cash. From another, they took ₹600 cash and dairy products. From a third, they stole ₹500 cash and mobile phone. Another delivery agent was robbed of his mobile phone, his Aadhaar and PAN cards. And when they realised that one motorcycle wasn’t comfortable for them, they stole a scooter from Sangam Vihar,” another investigator said.

But in the last two cases in the early hours of Sunday -- the robbery of a milk trader in Neb Sarai and a food delivery agent in Malviya Nagar -- the police saw the similarities in the modus operandi.

“We contacted officials of the food delivery firm and got to know that the rider’s phone wasn’t switched off. Since the rider had left his GPS on while returning from a delivery, we tracked the movement of the suspects and got to know that they were in Sainik Farms,”Rahul Gupta, assistant commissioner of police, said.

By 9am Sunday, the suspects were surrounded by the police at the gate number 1 of Sainik Farms.

While the adults were immediately arrested, the juvenile managed to escape until he was apprehended a few hours later, DCP Thakur said.

Most crimes have dipped in the national capital since the lockdown came into effect. Robberies and snatching, for example, have dipped by 62% and 253%, respectively, between April 1 and 15, compared to the corresponding period last year.