Conman cum Thief Lurking

The Crime Scene
If my last post was about the streaker who disturbed my maid, this time around I'm going to tell you about a fully clothed conman cum thief.

The story goes like this :-

It was last Tuesday, the second day of Ramadan. I was at Kuala Lumpur's The Mall having a business meeting with a client going through some documentations to be executed accordingly.

Half way through, our meeting was disrupted when my client got a call from his daughter who happens to do some shopping at the very same mall.

She told her father that she had been "caught" for being suspected of shop-lifting. "What, Shoplifting! Is there a mistake or something?" asked the father.

"It's definitely a mistake. I did not shop lift anything. I just bought something from Guardian and got into Parkson when this House Detective stopped me." explained the daughter. "Papa, please come here to help me out. I'm here at the Security's Office on the Third Floor." asked the daughter.

"Okay, I'll be there in a jiffy."said the father.

And so, he excused himself to attend to the more important matter in hand, leaving me alone at the meeting place.

About ten minutes later, he came back along with the daughter. I asked, "So, what's the story?" "I think they're trying to be funny disturbing young girls. The House Detective who stop my daughter for suspicion of shop-lifting was no where to be found. And we were waiting at the Security Office like fools", said the father.

"Emmm, something sounds not right. Why would a House Detective go missing after asking his "catch" to go to the Security's Office", I said.

"Yeah, I think I'll go back there later to lodge a complaint against their House Detective, such a nuisance!", said the father, totally convinced that it was the Shopping Complex House Detective playing the fool.

When we were just about to resume our discussion, the daughter, who was sitting on the next table besides us, suddenly cried "Papa, I've lost my purse!". Yes, she lost her purse, and how did she loose it?

Well, apparently when she was stopped by the "House Detective", she was asked to follow him to the Security's Office. Along the way, at the escalator, the House Detective asked for the handbag to do a search. It was during this time that the "House Detective" skillfully took the purse away.

After successfully and unsuspectingly stealing the purse, he then asked the girl to proceed to the Security's Office while he will follow suit later after getting some documents. And of course, it was just a trick so that he can escape without attracting any attention.

So that's how my client's daughter got tricked. Tricked by an imposter impersonating as a House Detective targeting young and naive girls.

A police report was later lodged and apparently, this method of stealing is a new modus operandi and quite rampant at The Mall.

So for those frequenting The Mall, or any other shopping complexes for that matter, just be careful. Don't surrender your handbag to strangers, even though they might appear to be a person of some authority.

What's interesting is that the image of the imposter was not captured by any CCTV installed at the Shopping Complex. He did his work all at "blind-spots", meaning to say that he has adequate knowledge on the various "blind-spots" in the complex. Who could he be? A former security personnel? I tend to believe that as otherwise, how would he know where to strike undetected!

Jasni AJ