Girl student held for stealing scooterettes

BHUBANESWAR: Only 14, she capitalised on her gift of gab and charming personality to make away with TVS Scooty vehicles.  Student of a prestigious English-medium school of the City, the girl was arrested on Saturday by Sahid Nagar Police for stealing the two-wheelers by posing as an executive of the automobile company. The girl had managed to con at least four persons and stolen their two-wheelers. Police recovered three of them which have been restored to their owners. A Class X student, the accused used her communication skills and personality to dupe the Scooty owners. Bhubaneswar DCP Nitinjit Singh said the girl would always appear at the doors posing as an executive of TVS company. Pretending to be carrying out a survey on behalf of the company for its new models, the 14-year-old would seek feedback from those who possessed a Scooty. “After endearing herself with the clueless victims, she would ask for the keys for a test-drive and speed away. She did that at least four times,” Singh said. Police received a complaint from one victim. Later two more came up. Of the four Scooty vehicles recovered, two were stolen from Nayapalli area while one was from Sahid Nagar. The fourth Scooty’s owner is yet to be known. Investigation revealed that the girl belongs to a well-off family. While parenting issues are believed to have led the girl to resort to such bizarre acts of theft, police found out that she did not sell off the two-wheelers.  “She probably had developed kleptomaniac tendencies which drove her to do this. Otherwise, why would she reveal her real name to the people she duped? Besides, she did not sell off the vehicles,” said a police officer. While her modus operandi was same for all the thefts, police got wind of her since she would park the Scooty at a betel shop. Two of the vehicles came to the notice of the police which took their custody. Soon the girl turned up claiming the vehicles and by that time police had received a complaint about another theft and got the complainant to verify. The accused has been sent to a juvenile home.