Thane: Torn bike seat helps police track down delivery boy who picked bag of jewellery

The woman, along with police, during the bag handover

A Dombivli-based housewife was upset after losing her bag containing 3.5 tola gold and Rs 11,000, but thanks to the quick action of the Manpada police, she was reunited with her belongings. The police scanned around 24 CCTV cameras of different high-profile buildings, leading them to a food delivery boy who had picked up the bag from the street. The food delivery boy returned the bag to the police willingly, who then returned it to the housewife.

The incident

According to the police, the complainant has been identified as Kavita Parab, a resident of Regency Anantham in Dombivli. On May 30, Parab was traveling with her husband from Panvel to Dombivli. When they reached near a hotel in Dombivli, the bag containing her jewellery and cash fell as she was getting out of the car.

"Later, she realised the bag was missing and, after searching with no success, she approached the police. The bag contained a total of 3.5 tola gold, R11,000 cash, and several important documents. A complaint was filed, and a team was assembled to investigate and trace the bag," said Vijay Kadbane senior police inspector Manpada police station. "We scanned the CCTV footage in the area and it showed that two food delivery boys passing by the bag. Their movement clearly indicated that either of the two may had taken the bag," said the officer.

"From the footage, we observed that the seat of one of the delivery boy's bikes was torn. Following this clue, we tracked the bike's movements through CCTV footage to Regency Colony. The motorcycle, with the torn seat, entered the society. After hours of tracking, we finally spotted the food delivery boy entering one of the buildings in the 24th recording. This led us to identify the building where the food delivery boy had been. We contacted the resident he visited and obtained the food delivery boy's contact number from them," added Kadbane.

Ram Chopade, police inspector, Manpada police station said, "Swapnil Kolar admitted to possessing the bag, stating that he found it on the road and did not open it. Not knowing its owner, he kept it with him and later handed it over to the police for safekeeping. The police subsequently returned the bag to Kavita Parab, who expressed gratitude to them for successfully locating her bag."