Mumbai: An agent of a reputed food delivery app was booked for allegedly stealing a new iPhone 14 Pro worth ₹1.5 lakh from a Kharghar-based cafe owner.
As per the police, the accused went to Gobblers’ Restro Café in sector 7, Kharghar, to collect an order and whisked away the brand new iPhone 14 Pro from the cash counter while the owner was away. Police refused to reveal the name of the accused as they are still investigating the matter.
Police officials said the owner of the cafe, Pranav Zemse, was at the counter when the agent came to collect the order on May 21 at 2.17am.
“We are the only food outlet that is open until 4am, so it is a regular affair to have food delivery agents come over to pick up orders placed online. On the day of the incident, when the agent walked in inquiring about the status of the order placed, I had left the phone on the counter just for a few minutes to have a word in the kitchen area,” said Zemse.
“After returning from the Kitchen I was not able to locate the phone so I checked the CCTV recordings and saw the agent before picking up the phone and trying to unlock it,” he added. “From the CCTV footage, it was also understood that the agent was assigned to collect orders placed with a neighbouring food outlet. Before stealing, it is clearly seen that he cancelled his task of picking up the order placed.”
The matter was immediately brought to the notice of the police and an FIR was also registered against an unknown rider working under section 380 of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, the owner has spoken to 100-odd riders working for the food company and has even informed the neighbouring food outlets about the incident. “As per the find my iPhone app, it has not been switched on post-theft,” said Zemse.
The police said they have obtained the details of the rider from the food company. “There was some delay in getting the details about the rider but now we have secured this information and very soon we will be getting the person nabbed,” said senior inspector Khargharn police station, Rajiv Sejwal.