Man falls for bait on Dubai road, ends up losing Dh700,000

Dubai, Mar 14: A gang managed to steal Dh700,000 from a salesman after dropping a packet full of US Dollars on the side of a road as a bait to distract him.

According to court documents, an Uzbek man, 26, lured the victim, together with runaway accomplices, away from traffic and people on a street in Naif area so that his friends would beat him up and snatch the large amount of money that he was carrying. He was charged with theft in the Court of First Instance.

A car rental office manager, also Uzbek, 26, is accused of aiding and abetting the theft by providing the gang with the car they used on November 12, last year, without receiving the necessary documents from them.

Two other Uzbek nationals, aged 39 and 24, are accused of possessing parts of the stolen cash.

"Around 2:00pm, I was assigned by my boss to carry Dh700,000 to a jewelry company which had business deals with his general trading establishment. I had the money in a suitcase and I went there walking," the 40-year-old Nepali salesman said.

After crossing the Naif Street, the salesman saw a packet of US Dollars on the side of the road.

A man picked up the money and gestured to him to follow him into an alley, signaling that he would split the cash with him.

The salesman followed him but he was surprised by another man stepping in and claiming that he had lost that money.

"He said that he wanted to search us. As the first man opened his bag I followed suit and opened my suitcase out of good will," the salesman told the prosecutor.

The victim was then punched in the face so strongly that he fell down and then woke up to see that he had lost the money. He reported the incident to the police and later went to the hospital for treatment.

"CCTV footage showed two men luring the victim in¬¬to an alley and shortly after two other men physically assaulting and running away with the large amounts of money that he was carrying," a police lieutenant said.

"We launched a probe and found that the suspects were driving a car belonging to a rental agency.

On November 19, we arrested one of the accused at the car rental office where he worked. He said that he gave the car for rent to two men without receiving the necessary identification documents from them, which goes against the enforced regulations".

The office employee told the police about one week earlier that he received a call from one of those men to go pick up the car from where he had left it in Sharjah with its keys inside.

"We found that the man gave the logistic support to the gang members to commit crimes without leaving behind any evidence," the lieutenant said.

Another accused was arrested a few hours later in Sharjah.

The trial will continue on April 3.