40-yr-old arrested for stealing valuables from homes after gaining entry with her harmless lost woman act
40-yr-old arrested for stealing valuables from homes after gaining entry with her harmless lost woman act
She looked and behaved like a harmless woman from the neighbourhood, but 40-year-old Harsha Shitole of Shaniwar Peth was arrested this week for stealing from homes she had been let into after she said she could not find an address.
|
| In custody: Harsha Shitole reportedly told the police during her interrogation that she took to stealing as she was singlehandedly supporting a five-year-old daughter. Pic/Jignesh Mistry |
Sometimes she would say she was there to invite the residents to a local function. Whatever her pretext, after gaining entry into a home she would chat up the person who had opened the door, said the police.
Then, she would ask for water. As soon as the person would go to the kitchen to get water, the police said Shitole would flee with whatever valuables she could lay her hands on.
The police said Shitole was responsible for five thefts committed in this manner.
Caught on CCTV
Shitole was arrested on Sunday on the basis of CCTV footage recovered from a building where a purse theft had recently been reported.
When the police cross-checked their records, the person who had sneaked away with the purse matched the description of Shitole.
An investigation team then searched her residence and recovered jewellery worth Rs 14 lakh.
According to police sources, Shitole was separated from her first husband, and her second husband had passed away in an accident. A mother of a five-year-old girl, Shitole said during her interrogation that she had resorted to theft to support her daughter.
"After many incidents of purse and jewellery theft were reported in Sadashiv Peth and Shaniwar Peth, we found all these cases had a common pattern ufffd a woman managed to gain entry into the home for a few minutes before the theft," said Senior Police Inspector Motichand Rathod of the Vishrambaugh police station. "After going through the CCTV images in the purse theft case, we realised it was Shitole, who had prior cases in her name."
Shitole was produced in court and remanded in police custody till March 5.
