Five women have been booked for stealing clothes from a garment store in Kadapa by concealing them under their sarees. The incident came to light when CCTV footage from the store captured the modus operandi of the women who disguised their actions while browsing through the merchandise.
The video showed the group of women entering the shop and behaving like typical customers looking at the clothes on display. While three of them engaged with the shop's staff and distracted them, two others concealed boxes of clothes under their sarees. One of the women can be seen actively engaging the salesperson, requesting more items to be shown, while the others discreetly hid the garments under their saree, according to a report on India Today.
After carrying out the theft, all five women left the store together, leaving the staff unaware of the crime that had just occurred. The shopkeeper, upon discovering the missing items, promptly lodged a complaint with the local police.
Authorities are now working to identify the culprits by analyzing the CCTV footage and continuing their investigation into the case.
This incident bears a striking resemblance to another case from last year, where a gang of six individuals was arrested for allegedly stealing expensive sarees from showrooms in Bengaluru. The group, which included both men and women, followed the same modus operandi by posing as customers and targeting high-end sarees. While the male members distracted the staff, the women concealed the sarees under their clothes. The gang then purchased a few items to avoid suspicion and later sold the stolen sarees at lower prices, splitting the proceeds among themselves, as reported by Udhayavani.
All the six members in the gang were from Andhra Pradesh.