Crafty thieves possess a variety of methods to steal from stores, like sleight of hand or posing as staff. One Polish man, on the other hand, tried pretending to be a mannequin.
Camera footage showed the burglar holding a bag and standing in front of a Warsaw store window, waiting for the mall to close.
The ‘master’ thief also robbed cash registers and stole more clothes on other occasions.
Police arrested the man, who faces a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.
A burglar in Warsaw, Poland, recently set his eyes on the loot provided by a shopping mall.
He wanted to wait for the shopping centre to close before performing his thievery, yet had to tackle the problem of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
The 22-year-old man then concocted an interesting strategy. Holding a bag, he reenacted the 2016 Mannequin Challenge in front of a shop’s display window.
As seen from an image released by police, the man stood, stiff-armed, in a parody of a mannequin.
Source: Warsaw Police
In an even more bizarre twist, Warsaw Police stated that staff and shoppers somehow failed to “notice anything unusual”, according to the BBC.
As such, the mall’s staff closed its shutters for the night without spotting the strangely realistic-looking mannequin.
Once he felt the coast was clear, the man shed his ‘disguise’ and browsed the various departments at his own leisure.
Eventually, he picked his target and stole jewellery from a closed jewellery stand.
The heist was not the Polish man’s only attempt at stealing. At another shopping centre, police said that he once more waited till after closing before snatching money from cash registers.
On a third alleged occasion, the thief stuck around until after closing and ate his fill at a restaurant. He then infiltrated a designer clothing store by crawling under the shutter.
Source: Warsaw Police
Once inside, he ‘exchanged’ his clothes for brand new ones before taking his leave for yet another successful haul.
Instead of exiting the mall, he decided to go back to the restaurant to eat another meal.
This time, however, security personnel spotted and detained him.
The police soon arrived and arrested the suspect, taking him to the police station and remanding him for three months.
Source: Warsaw Police
The thief faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of burglary and theft.
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Featured image adapted from Warsaw Police.
The authorities have investigated and closed the incident with no follow-ups required, MFA said.
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