An electronic goods sales showroom in Galle was broken into yesterday morning, and 20 Apple iPhones and 04 iPads worth more than Rs. 11 million were stolen.
The theft was committed by hitting a glass wall in the showroom with a stone, breaking the glass and sneaking through it.
Security cameras have been installed in this showroom belonging to a leading company in Sri Lanka, but they have been inactive for a long time. Therefore, finding out when the theft took place and identifying the thief became a problematic situation.
The Galle Police received a complaint about this theft after the employees of the showroom arrived there in the morning. The manager made a complaint to the police after 8:00 am.
Here, when the police checked the security cameras of the nearby stores, they observed a suspicious person walking across the road from the side of the showroom with a bag at around 2.30 am. While the police were trying to identify who he was by taking a close-up photo of the person, the top management of this showroom informed the police that three of their showrooms had been broken by breaking glass in this manner on 03 previous occasions. The management has taken steps to inform the Galle Police that the same suspect did the break-in.
One of the managers had a photo of the suspect and a copy of the identity card, and he forwarded it to the manager of the Galle showroom via WhatsApp. It has been found that the person recorded on a security camera and the person who broke in earlier to the other shops are the same person.
Accordingly, when a police team went to the house in Polwaththa, Matara, where they were informed that the suspect was residing, he was sleeping in the house. During the questioning after waking him up, it was revealed that he was on remand for breaking into a company’s showroom in Colombo. He had been released on bail from the Welikada prison the previous day and robbed the Galle showroom while on his way home.
The police have also found all the stolen phones and devices which were hidden. The police say that this person is heavily addicted to drugs.
