Three robbers were sentenced to five years in prison for stealing BD40,000 worth of electric cables from a warehouse in Ras Zuwayed in an elaborate, highly organised heist.
The court heard that four masked men broke into the facility, restrained its guard and locked him in the security booth. They then drove a van inside the premises and loaded it with large quantities of valuable copper wire before fleeing the scene.
A few days earlier, they had stolen their getaway van from another construction warehouse, managing to escape detection by switching the van’s licence plates.
While one of the four perpetrators is still unidentified and at large, the three Pakistani defendants were charged with robbery, keeping the security guard captive, assaulting him and stealing his phone.
Judges ordered that they be deported after completing their time in prison.
The guard earlier told the Public Prosecution that the masked men suddenly entered his security room, at 2am on a quiet night.
“One covered my mouth, while the other grabbed me and twisted my arm,” the 37-year-old Pakistani testified. However, in another account, he stated that he was threatened with a knife and a wooden stick.
“I tried to resist, but four more men came in and assaulted me. They took my phone, tied me to a chair, and took the gate keys from me,” the guard recounted.
“They drove a white minibus inside, broke the warehouse lock and left with a large quantity of items. Before leaving, they untied me but locked me inside the room from the outside.
“I remained there for five hours, until 7am, when a worker arrived and freed me.”
Authorities were alerted to the alleged theft, and learned from informants that the four perpetrators were planning to sell the cables to a store.
A sting operation was set up with the store worker’s help. According to a policeman, the four men arrived at the shop in the same minibus. Upon sensing that something was off, they tried to flee. Three were caught, but their fourth accomplice remains at large.
“It appears that the defendants changed the licence plates to evade police, making it harder to track them,” the Bahraini officer stated.
A manager at the company that owns the warehouse testified that cables worth more than BD40,000 were stolen, after an inventory of the stock was taken post-theft.
Items worth only BD7,000 were recovered, he added. At the police station, he identified the cables belonging to his company.
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