DUBAI 21 April 2017: A large crowd could not prevent a thief – who was trapped inside a mosque’s grocery – from running away with Dh3,000 cash.
All he had was a knife, with which he threatened the large crowd, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
57-year-old Egyptian preacher QA, who lives in the accommodation of the ‘imam’ of the mosque looked out when he heard suspicious noise coming from the underneath grocery.
“I shouted and screamed when I saw a man who was roaming around in front of the grocery. When I shouted he ran away and disappeared. I called the police and people gathered in front of the grocery. When I got down, we saw a man inside the grocery and that the glass was broken,” testified QA.
The thief got out of the grocery from an opening in the broken glass threatening all the gathered men by a knife he was holding in his hand.
A few minutes later, police arrived and lifted biological traces and fingerprints.
A blood stain found on the glass revealed the identity of the thief.
Police arrested SK, 47, jobless Emirati. The crime helped revealing the identity of the thief in previous thefts of which the thief remained unidentified.
The court will give verdict on June 11.
By Lolyana Zaki