A suspected serial thief, Olajide Balogun, who was arrested by the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, has disclosed how he used to carry out his operations without being detected.
Thenewsbearer learnt that the serial phone thief, formerly domiciled in Lagos but relocated to his Akoko town in Ondo State, used to come to the state for the sole purpose of phone theft.
The suspect, aged 36, was arrested by the RRS decoy team, who had monitored the suspect as he was carting away his loot on a motorcycle, along Shasha road, in Alimosho area.
On sighting the advancing RRS operatives, Balogun had reportedly jumped off the motorcycle and took to his heels, in an attempt to evade arrest.
But he was pursued and apprehended by the determined decoy team of the Agency. Recovered from him were five stolen android phones.
Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and demonstrated his modus operandi during any operation to steal phones from his targeted victims.
According to him, “my method of operation is to enter a shop and asked to buy table water. After being told it is N100 each, I will tell the shop owner to look for more bottles, stylishly placing the polythene bag I’m holding on the phone that I have sighted.
“While the shop owner is busy getting more bottles of water, I will tell her that I will need a bigger and stronger bag to carry the bottles and will go out on a fake purchase.”
Balogun said that his last operation was at Igando area where he got a total of four phones from different shops.
He also opened up on those who buy the stolen items from him at Computer Village, mentioning one Michael as his major receiver. He added that he would have got between N40,000 and N50,000 for the phones.
The suspect said he was formerly living with his brother in Lagos, and was stealing just a phone, but relocated to his village after the brother’s death.
It was further learnt that the suspect would be arraigned in court after the conclusion of investigations, in line with the directive of the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu.
