Brave expat catches fake Dubai cop stealing Dh551,000

Dubai - He managed to keep him inside his apartment while the police arrived.

The Dubai Court of First Instance has charged two men for impersonating as cops, robbing Dh551,200 and 15 mobile phones.
The public prosecution accused the two men - a 44-year-old Emirati and a 33-year-old Nigerian - of posing as CID officers when they barged, with runaway accomplices, inside a shared flat in Freej Al Murar, Naif.
The complainant, a 33-year-old Nigerian employee, said he was always entrusted by his company's manager to deposit large amounts of money at the bank or deliver it to a cash transporting company.
"At 8pm on July 22, I received Dh551,200 to deposit at the security company. However, when I reached there, I was told our account was already closed for the day and that I had to come the next day," he told the prosecution investigator.
The complainant returned to his place where all his five Nigerian roommates were present and kept the amount in a safe. "There was another amount of Dh91,100 - a total of Dh 642,300. I went out and returned a few hours later around 2am," he told the prosecutor.
"It was at 2.30am that we were surprised by four men barging into the flat posing as CID officers. The main accused was speaking on behalf of the others. He showed an ID but did not let us see it properly. He asked whether we had drugs and that they needed to search the place," the victim recalled.
The complainant was then escorted out by the fake cops. "It was only when they hailed a cab that I realised they were not real cops. I grabbed the main defendant and told him I would call the police. The second accused would not help me restrain the main defendant but told me he was from the CID indeed," he said.
However, the complainant could not stop the first defendant from fleeing the place, though his accomplices got away with Dh 551,200 and other belongings.
A police officer said the robbery incident was reported around 3.10am. "We went to the building and found the main defendant already restrained by the complainant. There were about 20 African men surrounding him. We took him into custody."
The trial will continue on October 10.
mary@khaleejtimes.com