Thieves hide valuables in sand, caught when trying to retrieve booty

Friends leave bag with valuables near pole at Juhu beach before going into water; robbers who buried bag in sand caught when they come looking for it

Thieves hide valuables in sand, caught when trying to retrieve booty

Arnab Dutta is all smiles after his stolen property was returned to him

If you ever end up losing valuables at Juhu beach, don't forget to look in the sand, they might just be buried there. Last week, the Santacruz police found out about this gritty modus operandi while they were looking for a Kolkata-based couple's stolen valuables. They have arrested four vendors for the crime.

The incident occurred on July 14, when Kolkata residents Arnab Dutta and Sneha Dhawan decided to venture into the sea around 12.30 am and kept their bags near an electricity pole behind Hotel Ramada Plaza. They were gone for 10 minutes and when they returned, the bag — containing Dutta's Apple laptop, mobile phone, Kindle and Rs 5,000 in cash — had disappeared. The items were collectively worth Rs 81,600.

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A case was registered at the Santacruz police station. Senior inspector Shriram Koregaonkar then set up a special team under inspector Vijay Gaonkar and sub-inspector Suresh Valvi.

The team began inquiring with the vendors at the beach, but were unable to get any clue.

When the cops tracked the last location of the mobile phone, they found that it was still at the spot it had been stolen from.

The baffled cops decided to keep an eye on the beach. Around 4 am on July 16, Valvi spotted four men roaming suspiciously behind Hotel Ramada Plaza. He and his team caught hold of the four and started questioning them. "We asked what they were doing at the spot so early in the day and they said they had come to answer nature's call. We knew they were lying and took them into custody, where they told us about the bag they were looking for," said an officer from Santacruz police station.

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The cops took them back to the beach. "They dug two feet into the sand and took out a bag that had a laptop, Amazon Kindle and iPhone. The four accused have been identified as Gopal Yadav, 26, Deepak Rai alias Naale, 20, Milton Badoi, 24, and Prasanna Singh, 30. All are food vendors at chowpatty. "We have arrested them and recovered property worth Rs 56,000," said Shriram Koregaonkar, senior inspector, Santacruz police station.

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