Chennai: Two youths nab mobile thief with FB messenger

Chennai: Social media is a boon or bane. Definitely a boon for a city-based medical representative, who successfully traced his costly mobile phone from a shop and also help the police to nab a 19-year-old boy from Jharkhand.

On June 13, S. Simiyon (24) of Perambur was in a telecom showroom to get a replacement for his lost sim card. “I did not notice a person stealing my expensive mobile phone and was shocked to find the phone missing from the table,” Simiyon told DC.

But Simiyon had managed to recognise the face of the person, who was sitting adjacent to him and showroom management came forward to provide CCTV footage. Unfortunately, the camera did not cover the incident but showed the face of the man clearly. “The showroom employees gave the phone number of the person and I had tried to call the number in vain, as the number was switched off,” he said.

Meanwhile, Simiyon contacted J. Jaffar Hussain (24), his school friend and apprised of the incident. The friends also visited Kilpauk police station and lodged a complaint on the same day. But Simiyon, who had bought the phone on EMI basis did not want to pay instalment amount to the phone he no more owned. “We checked the name of the number given by showroom staff in Truecaller application and found that the name is Pankaj Kumar, matching the name in showroom database,” Simiyon said.

Simiyon also said that he and Jaffar had tried to find the details of the thief in WhatsApp, IMO, Google Duo and other social media platforms, but could not stumble on the details. However, the breakthrough arrived in the form of Facebook Messenger.

“To retrieve the lost password or username, one has to register his mobile number in Facebook Messenger. So we searched the person in messenger by entering the phone number and we found his Facebook account in the name of Pankaj Kumar,” Jaffar said. The two friends did not stop there and established a contact with one of Pankaj’s friends in the Facebook purposely and asked for Pankaj’s number.

Although the Facebook friend remained hesitant to part with the number, Simiyon promised a job for Pankaj. They sought help from their Hindi speaking friend and told Pankaj’s friend that job will be provided for north Indians. Finally, the Facebook friend gave Pankaj’s number.

Simiyon and Jaffer told the same story to Pankaj about the job and asked him to come for an interview. “At first, Pankaj believed what we told and agreed to come to meet us. But later he called and told that he is in his native place in Jharkhand and expressed his ‘inability’ to come in person. But we had already collected details of his stay in the city from him and went to Madhavaram on Wednesday. We caught him and brought him to Kilpauk police station,” a friend said.

Meanwhile, the police recovered the phone and remanded Pankaj Kumar (19) to judicial custody. “Pankaj had visited the city only 10 days ago and had found a job in a furniture shop in Madha-
varam,” the police said.

The recovered phone would be handed over to Simiyon after the completion of court procedures.