Mumbai Music concerts have become the latest target for mobile thieves. On Tuesday, Tardeo police arrested three men who allegedly attended music concerts just to steal high-end mobile handsets. Police officials said taking advantage of the crowd, the gang allegedly stole around 25 mobile phones during the concert of rapper and US singer Post Malone at Mahalaxmi Racecourse on Saturday.
In November, during DJ Snake’s music concert more than 60 phones were stolen from Bandra Kurla Complex. The cops had arrested six people from Bhiwandi and recovered 15 stolen phones from them.
A day before the Mumbai event, thieves had targeted DJ Snake’s concert in Pune where 35 mobile phones were reported to have been stolen. Last December, during the Sunburn Music Festival in Goa, 240 complaints of mobile theft had been reported.
Meanwhile, Tardeo police managed to arrest three people for Saturday’s theft. The arrested trio includes a Swiggy delivery boy – suspected to be the leader of the gang, a car washer and a cloth seller. “We have arrested Irfan alias Adu Shaikh, 26, Yakub Shaikh alias Lali, 26, and Nizam Shah, 36, all residents of Golibar Road in Khar East,” said Vivek Shende, senior police inspector of Tardeo police station.
“On Saturday, ‘Feeding India’ concert organized by Zomato that was held at Mahalaxmi Racecourse where US singer and rapper Post Malone, Indian artists like Zaeden, Ananya Birla and Ritviz performed. Around 25 complaints of phone thefts were reported after the concert. We suspect that mobile handsets were stolen only when the audience started enjoying the music. They mostly target high-end phones, as the audience attending such events come from well-to-do families,” said a police officer.
“We started tracing them and through CCTV camera footages finally reached the accused at Golibar Road. They used to buy tickets online and had paid ₹5,000 each for the Racecourse event. Once they went in, they stole only high-end phones. We have recovered four iPhones and two OnePlus phones from the accused,” said Siddhesh Joste who arrested the accused.
Joste said Irfan otherwise works with Swiggy as a delivery agent, Yakub washes cars and Nizam sells clothes near Bandra station.
“They used to keep an eye on events and music concerts and bought tickets and then steal phones. We suspect they stole more than 20-25 high-end phones at one event. They would immediately throw away the SIM cards so that the phones were not traced. They also sold the phones spare parts and not the complete phone making it difficult to trace them,” said Joste.
Police officials said that apart from the three-member gang from Golibar Road, gangs from New Delhi, Surat and Malwani in Malad were also active in stealing phones during music concerts.
Box
Artist: Post Malone
Venue: Mahalaxmi Racecourse
When: December 10
Mobile Stolen: 25
Artist: DJ Snake
Venue: Bandra-Kurla Complex
When: November 26
Mobile Stolen: 60
Artist: DJ Snake
Venue: Pune
When: November 25
Mobile Stolen: 35
Concert: Sunburn Music Festival
Venue: Goa
When: December 30, 2021
Mobile Stolen: 240
.