Gang of teens robbing delivery boys after placing fake online orders arrested

The gang's been operating for the last five months and had placed more than 50 fake online orders.

At an age when most kids are finishing their schooling and looking to get admissions into colleges to pursue studies in their chosen fields such medicine, engineering, arts among others so that they may earn a stable income and life, a gang of five young boys in Delhi seemed to have found a faster way of getting a good income.

The only problem with their ingenious plan was that though the money was good, the way was illegal, so the second part of having a stable life could not be achieved using their chosen way.

The plan, hatched by a group of five, was to commit robberies, but unlike those in the past when these included stealing from shops, banks, the boys targetted the delivery services of e-retailers, who have become the new medium to shop.

This included first stealing bikes and then using them to ride around areas searching for targets to snatch smartphones from. And then using these mobile phones to order goods from online shopping sites and then robbing the person who came to deliver the order.

Through this, the members, who are still teenagers were able to amass a fortune in the last five months, in Delhi's south-west area of Najafgarh, till the police busted the ring and arrested members of the group on Thursday.

According to reports, the police have arrested three members of the group and the other two are on the run. Those arrested are 18-year-old Hemant, Sunil and Mohit, both aged 19.

Their loot included bikes and phones, expensive electronic gadgets, home appliances, branded clothes, wrist watches and shoes. They got these by placing orders using a fake address to avoid detection. When the delivery man would come with the merchandise he would call up the number given to find the fake address. The gang would use the opportunity to direct him to an isolated place, where they would ambush and rob him.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) MN Tiwari is reported to have said, "They have CCTV cameras in their homes. The live feed is connected to their mobile phones and they monitor every visitor ... so that they could run during a police raid."

But this strategy of the clever and tech-savvy gang to avoid drawing attention failed after they allegedly robbed a delivery van with goods worth a lakh rupees in the Najafgarh area on the 28th of last month.

The boys booked a pair of shoes and then robbed the van that came to deliver them. According to reports, the police said, the teens drove the vehicle to a secluded spot and transferred the van's content to another car after which the van was found in Jharoda village.

Following this, a hunt was launched and a tip-off led the police to the robbers, who were waiting to commit another robbery. "A pistol was found on them. We recovered phones, electronic goods and another stolen bike," Tiwari is reported to have said. And reports added that the gang had placed 50 online orders online in the last in four months.

OneIndia News