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A convicted thief snuck into a house in his neighbourhood, going from room to room and stealing everything from laptops and iPads, to a diamond-studded gold ring and a medical sugar monitor for diabetics.
The unemployed Bahraini living in Nuwaidrat even snatched shirts from the clothesline on the balcony, and went so far as to take a bag from the maid’s room containing her identity documents and some clothing.
This four-part scheme, which involved two house burglaries and two instances of impersonation, was pulled off by the 38-year-old last June, but he failed to cover his tracks properly and was eventually caught.
He went on to pawn off the gold using the identity of a person whose CPR card he had stolen, and fled in a getaway car he rented with the stolen ID.
The High Criminal Court sentenced him to five years in prison.
The court heard that the first part of the heist took place when the repeat offender broke into a house in Jerdab, stealing a bank card and gold jewellery.
For the second part of the plan, a government official stated that his house in Nuwaidrat was similarly burgled, with the defendant going from room to room and picking up whatever he could lay his hands on.
Starting with the home office, the defendant took three laptops and four iPads, along the homeowner’s wallet which contained his CPR and an ATM card.
He then went to the bedroom, from which he lifted a gold chain and a gold ring encrusted with diamonds, worth nearly BD2,000.
His next stop was the domestic worker’s room, where he stole a bag containing her clothes and ID papers. From the kitchen counter, he swiped a wrist watch and BD100, along with a sugar monitor, some medications and cigarettes.
His final stop was the balcony, from where he snatched a number of clothes left out to dry. When the man had to exit the house, he left behind some of his belongings in the house, including his portable charger, a shirt and drug paraphernalia.
The court heard that he had entered the Nuwaidrat house without breaking in, exploiting his constant presence in the vicinity ‘looking for drugs to consume’ to constantly watch the residents.
When he made sure that the house was empty, he snuck through an open window, then left the house with his loot, stashing it behind a palm tree near the house to return and retrieve it later.
The scheme culminated in the third part, when the Bahraini went to a gift shop specialised in selling watches, gold and silver, where he pawned off the gold taken from the first house.
“On the day of the incident, the suspect came to my store wanting to sell some gold he had,” a businessman, who owns the store, earlier testified.
“He presented me with an identity card, which I later learned wasn’t his, though he really did look like the person in the photo.”
An Indian employee at the store corroborated this account.
When the suspect, who was living in Nuwaidrat, was eventually caught, he faced five charges and he was convicted on all of them, including maliciously using another individual’s identity card to undeservedly benefit from it.
He was further charged with falsifying the victim’s signature on the receipt, which was used to complete the gold transaction, and using the document with full knowledge of its illegitimate nature.
The GDN earlier reported that the Public Prosecution also charged him with stealing property and cash belonging to two people, and impersonating the victim to rent a vehicle.
According to an investigator, the defendant topped off his series of crimes by renting a car using the same CPR card he used to sell the gold, ‘in an attempt to cover his tracks’.
The investigator added that the Bahraini had several convictions of theft and impersonation on record, and had previously planned to burgle a house in Jerdab.
The ex-con admitted to charges, and was recorded by security cameras while pawning the valuables. Forensics teams also stated that traces of his DNA were found in the driver’s seat of the car.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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