How gang is stealing from depositors

Police have warned the public of a new gang that is stealing from customers inside local banks and in broad daylight.

The gang, usually operating in groups of three or four, has been terrorising customers who are in the process of carrying out various transactions in banks.

They steal through distracting customers, confusing them and getting away with their money in what seems to be a well-orchestrated plan.

Already, police have identified one woman and three men in their 30s who have executed at least three such thefts inside banks.

In one such a case,  the trio stole Sh550,000 from a worker of a renown restaurant located along Kimathi street about two months ago.

The police are yet to arrest the suspects claiming the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage presented to them does not clearly show the images of the culprits. 

GOOD SAMARITAN

The video clips, which were also seen by Nation clearly show their mode of operation. The incidents occurred in the mid-morning hours.

In what seems to be like a scene straight from the movies, the suspects are seen inside the mark masterminding the theft of the money from a customer who wanted to deposit the money.

Police say the thieves mostly target people who are depositing large amounts of cash, confusing them and making way with the loot unnoticed. They always seem to have prior knowledge that their target is going to deposit a tidy sum of money, police say.

In the clip , the thieves walk into the bank confidently posing as customers. One of them, a lady, walks in first. She is then followed later by two men.  They seem to know their prey as they do not sweep their eyes across the hall trying to look for their target. One of the thieves is in a baseball cap and has a brown envelope similar to the one their target is carrying his cash in.

Once they are in the banking hall, the footage shows how they strategically position themselves. Three of them go to the counter where their target is filling his deposit paper. One  sits on the benches in the banking hall.

The ones on the counters pretend to be filling banking slips, their eyes on their target. They have to act fast before their prey can leave the counter and join the banking queue.

A few minutes later, one of the racketeers approaches the man with the money and pretends to be enquiring something, probably how to fill some particulars on the deposit slip. The depositor then starts explaining to the conman how to fill the slip, turning his gaze away from the envelope with the cash.

The other thief, who is holding a similar brown envelope quickly exchanges the envelopes then passes the one with the cash to the lady accomplice who is conveniently next to him. The despositor is left with the envolope with no cash.

The lady then stealthily walks out of the banking hall as she puts the loot in her handbag. The target is still explaining to the other man unaware that he has just lost a tidy sum amount of money. The other gang members will later walk away one by one, before he can realize that he has been defrauded.According to the police, the thieves work in cahoots with the bank employees. 

Why else, the police wonder, did one of the thieves pass time in the banking hall for a more than an hour doing nothing. The police also observed that it is only bank staff who are mostly aware of the banking patterns of their clients.