They ask for speakers and steal laptops

Bharat Sharma

Laptop theft is on the rise once again in North India. Three laptops were lifted from a shop in Bareilly on March 24, a laptop was stolen from Netpro in Jalandhar around the same time. Most recently, on April 9, four ladies fooled the owners of a laptop store in Delhi by stealing a Dell Inspiron laptop. What is striking in all three cases is the modus operandi of the thieves. According to the owners of the affected shops, the robbers deceived them by asking for speakers and then running away with laptops. The DQ Week got an access to the footage of this shoplifting.

Sumit Gulati, owner of Micronix Infosolutions, Paschim Vihar, Delhi, narrated that the Dell Inspiron laptop worth Rs 34,000 was picked up from his shop in broad daylight. He said, “The moment these women entered the shop, we had doubt on their intentions. They asked for speakers and we knew they will not buy anything. They were just fooling around. Afterwards, on the CCTV footage, we saw that one of the women, carrying a baby had concealed the laptop in her baby's quilt. That is how this gang operates. We want everyone to be aware of this.” However, when asked about lodging an FIR with the police, he said, “The police is reluctant to file an FIR as then it will be their responsibility to take care of the case. They said they will file it in a few days.” In another case which The DQ Week reported in December 2009, 10 laptops worth Rs 3 lakh were stolen from a Dell showroom in the Rohini area of New Delhi. Although an FIR was launched immediately after the crime, the police has not yet been able to nail down the culprits.

The ineffectiveness with which the police functions is also evident in other parts of North India. It has been two months since the robbery took place in Jalandhar but the state police is yet to file an FIR for the case. The modus operandi was again the same. “These robberies keep taking place in our city. In this case, when we went to the police, they said first we will have to install CCTV cameras in all the shops then they would help us in catching the culprits. Now that we have shown them the CCTV footage of the shops attacked by robbers, the police officials have still not registered our complaints,” said Rajiv Khanna-Media Advisor, Jalandhar Computer Dealers Association (JCDA).

Barielly also faces the same problem. Three laptops were stolen during the months of March and April with the same modus operandi. One laptop was luckily recovered by Sanjay Gupta, owner of Computer Aid in Bareilly. The other two laptops stolen from Deep Distributors are yet to be traced. The FIR has not been lodged but police has assured the President of the local Computer Association (BCDWA) that it will provide all possible help in the investigation.