Ramallah: Palestinian police announced on Wednesday that investigation teams had arrested two suspects believed to have broken into the home of an elderly woman in the town of Beir Nabala, west of occupied East Jerusalem, stealing $200,000 (Dh734,580) and 1,000 Jordanian dinars (Dh5,174).
The woman, who was a known beggar and believed to be very poor, was in fact almost a millionaire, since the money stolen equates to around 800,000 shekels (Dh780,208).
The theft took place a few weeks ago, according to Loay Zuraiqat, spokesman for the Palestinian police, at which time an investigation team was set up.
The elderly woman lived alone in a dilapidated house, which she secured with steel chains whenever she went out.
Police investigators were suspicious of two Palestinians in the same town, and secured a search warrant from the Palestinian Public Prosecution to search their home. During the search, some of the money was recovered, and both suspects confessed to the crime. The money was seized and the suspects detained.
The victim, who is over 70 years old, had been well known to the residents of occupied East Jerusalem and Ramallah for years as a professional beggar. All the woman’s stolen money was accumulated from begging.
Sources in occupied East Jerusalem told Gulf News the woman, known as Umm Mohammad, fell sick for days after she found out that her money had been stolen. The moment her medical condition improved, however, she returned to the streets to beg. She is registered with all the Palestinian welfare and charity organisations, and routinely seeks financial aid from these organisations.
The woman has also demanded her share of the donations and Zakat received from Gulf countries and abroad. It is alleged that she does not spend any money, even on her own food — she begs for lunch every day. As she is elderly, she is able to easily pass through the Israeli checkpoints into occupied East Jerusalem.
Beir Nabala used to be a neighbourhood of the city, but after the building of the Israeli segregation barrier, the town fell outside of the Israeli-drawn municipal boundaries.
Both the sum of money stolen from the woman’s house and the fact that she used to exchange her daily earnings in Israeli shekels to US currency, have shocked the neighbourhood. Rumours are circulating that the woman used to keep her money in the walls of her house, covered by cement. It is believed that the thieves monitored her carefully to learn about the place where she kept the money. In fact, it was by determining who had been lingering around in the area in the days leading up to the crime that the police were able to track down the suspects.
