ESCAPE’S CUT OFF

Moment bungling thief tries to flee shop with stolen phones — but can’t open the DOOR

Paul Sims

Published: 22:00, 6 Dec 2022
Updated: 22:59, 6 Dec 2022

A BUNGLING thief tries to flee a shop with stolen phones — but can’t open the door.

Owner Afzal Adam, 52, used a £250 gizmo installed behind the counter to lock the entrance after becoming suspicious of his motives.

Shop owner Afzal Adam shows a customer some mobile phones — Shop owner Afzal Adam shows a customer some mobile phonesCredit: SWNS

The man tries to do a runner with the phones — The man tries to do a runner with the phonesCredit: SWNS

But the bungling thief couldn't open the door as Afzal had locked it with his gizmo — But the bungling thief couldn't open the door as Afzal had locked it with his gizmoCredit: SWNS

He let the man go after he put the phones down, fearing he could get violent at Phone Market in Dewsbury, West Yorks.

Afzal said: “With people wearing masks and balaclavas, I was worried about not being able to identify anyone if they did steal from my store.

“He’d have gotten away with £1,600 of merchandise, so the mechanism has paid for itself!

“After I had the owner of another local store come in and ask what mechanism we had as they wanted the same."

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He added: “99.99% of the comments have been saying well done and commending our forgiveness.

“Some people have been asking 'Why didn't you beat him up?', but we would never do that.

“I hope I have showed people what humanity is - there's more to the story than this and if we had acted out it would just have been another story of violence."

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