Manama: A thief in Bahrain was arrested after he parked the car he had stolen three days earlier at the house of a friend who happened to be the victim’s neighbour.
The car was stolen in the capital Manama after the driver left it with the engine running to go inside a jewellery shop.
When he came out, he discovered that the car had disappeared and he reported the theft to the police.
Investigators checked the shop’s surveillance cameras, but the video was too grainy to allow them to identify the thief as he got in the car and drove away.
Three days later, the owner’s father was leaving their home in Hamad Town, some 20 kilometres south of Manama, when he saw the car parked next to the house.
He recognised it immediately even though the thief had changed the licence plates in a bid to conceal that it had been stolen.
In order to make sure the car was his son’s, the father used the spare remote key and the doors of the vehicles were opened.
He then called his son and the police and informed them about the car.
The thief was arrested and he admitted that he had stolen the car. He added that he never thought that his friend was the neighbour of the car’s rightful owner and that by going to his house in Hamad Town, he would be identified and arrested.
The case was referred to the public prosecution and to a court of justice.
The judges on Sunday sentenced the thief to one year in jail.
