Bizarre! Naked burglar drills hole in Bengaluru store, steals phones to give gifts to girlfriend

A naked burglar with a mask on his face and a torchlight in hand, broke into a mobile store and stole 85 mobile phones of different brands worth Rs 25 lakh in Bengaluru.

Image Credit: AI-generated image (for representational purposes only)

In the most bizarre of crime thrillers, a 27-year-old man from Assam broke into a mobile phone store in Bengaluru completely naked, with a mask on his face.

The heist unfolded at Hanuman Telecom in Hongasandra, south Bengaluru, during the early hours of May 9. The man was later identified as Imranullah. Not to ruin his newly purchased clothes while squeezing through a two-foot-wide hole, he had drilled into the shop’s wall, he chose to go naked.

CCTV footage revealed the man slithering through the hole, navigating the store with a mobile torch in hand. He bypassed budget models and zeroed in on the premium smartphones, looting handsets worth over Rs 15,000 with clinical efficiency. All this while his masked accomplice kept watch from outside.

Initially suspecting an organised gang, the police were left shocked after reviewing the CCTV. 

The burglary was discovered the following afternoon when the shop owner, Dinesh — away on a family emergency in Rajasthan — remotely accessed the CCTV feed. He then alerted his friend Vasanaram, who rushed to the shop.

“I rushed to the shop and saw the hole drilled into the left wall. I informed the police immediately and filed a complaint,” said Vasanaram, who works at a nearby mobile store.

Police found several high-end phones missing. With help from the clear CCTV footage, they tracked down Imranullah the next day. 

“He claimed he needed money to spend on his girlfriend. His plan was to sell the phones in the black market,” said a senior police officer.

“The hole was just big enough for someone with his build. He knew the store layout and the camera angles. He was focused only on the phones of higher value,” the officer added.

Meanwhile, store owner Dinesh said, “I was away for just one night, and it happened. Thankfully, the stolen items have been recovered."

Police have charged Imranullah under sections 331 (house-trespass or housebreaking) and 305 (theft in a dwelling house) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. He remains in custody while probe continues to track down the second suspect.