Mother-of-one caught after her picture was circulated to security guards
- By Bassma Al Jandaly, Community and Crime Correspondent
Dubai: A woman has been arrested for stealing goods worth thousands of dirhams from big name stores after her picture was circulated to security guards, said a top police official.
Colonel Ahmad Thani Bin Galita, Director of the Crime Prevention Department at Dubai Police’s Criminal and Investigation Department (CID), told Gulf News that an Iranian woman was arrested in Dubai for shoplifting from various big name stores.
Colonel Bin Galita said the 54-year-old mother of one was arrested in Uptown Mirdif. He said the woman, identified as Z.A.M., was on a visit visa and was a regular visitor to Dubai. She was spotted on CCTV cameras while stealing from a store two weeks ago.
He added that the incident happened when Dubai Police’s Command and Control Centre received a call from a shop owner that three expensive pairs of sunglasses had been stolen.
“The CCTV cameras in the shop showed a blond woman using special scissors to cut the security tag attached to items in the shop,” he said.
“We distributed the woman’s picture in all shops and malls in Dubai,” he said.
He said a few days later a security guard in a shop contacted police confirming that the woman was roaming around shops in Uptown Mirdif Shopping Mall.
“The woman was spotted in the same shop wearing the same clothes which she was wearing before,” he said.
He said she was stopped by police who found two pairs of women’s shoes in her handbag along with sunglasses.
He said the woman told police that she bought the two pairs of shoes earlier and wanted to exchange them. She was taken to the shop where the shoes were from but the salesman said she had not bought them from there.
Colonel Bin Galita said the woman later admitted to stealing the shoes.
Police then searched the woman’s house in Shorooq in Mirdif.
He said the woman refused to tell them where she lived but told them the area.
“We knocked on all doors in the building where she said she was living in order to find her house,” he said.
“Her daughter and her brother were there,” he said.
He said police found a large number of stolen clothes, shoes, perfume and household items.
The woman is in police custody.
“The woman admitted the offences and said that she was here on a visit visa and that she comes regularly to shoplift and takes items back home to sell ” said Colonel Bin Galita.
He urged all shops to report similar incidents to help prevent crimes.
“Some shops do not tell the police if something has been stolen,” he said.
He said even if the goods were inexpensive shoplifting needed to be reported.
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