Mystery of the missing trucks

ABU DHABI - The Al Ain Police have solved the mystery behind the theft of pickup trucks and cash from drivers.

By (Staff Reporter)

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Published: Wed 25 Apr 2012, 12:29 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 11:35 AM

The police caught the culprits after drivers complained that their trucks and cash were getting stolen on Al Ain highway in the last two months.

The 24-year-old prime suspect, an Asian identified as RG, was arrested for his involvement in the theft of three pickup trucks using the same mode of operation.

“The criminal used to ask the drivers for transport claiming that he had livestock which needed to be transported from Al Ain to the livestock market in another emirate,” said Brigadier Hamad Ajlan Al Amimi, Director of Al Ain Police Directorate.

He added that RG’s accomplice, an Arab whose role was to buy the stolen pickups against a small sum of money to be smuggled out of the country later, was also detained.

Brigadier Al Amimi said the police received three pickup theft reports in a row in the past two months. All three complaints said that the pickup drivers were drugged and their trucks and cash were stolen. “Once a pickup driver accepts the deal, RG asks the driver to pull up near a cafeteria in the middle of the

road to have a meal or tea,” said Al Amimi explaining the modus operandi. “The criminal then adds an anaesthetic drug in the tea and hands it to the driver. After a while, when the driver loses consciousness, he is pushed out of the vehicle and the culprit takes off with the truck, and with the cash and mobile phone taken from the driver.” Al Amimi said in one of the incidents, one of the victims, after drinking the tea offered by the criminal, went to a nearby mosque for prayers and collapsed.

The Imam saw him and called for an ambulance and the driver was taken to the hospital. On interrogation, the driver said that he had been conned.”

A third victim reported a similar case at Al Ain Police station.

news@khaleejtimes.com


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