77-year-old arrested for the 25th time, has stolen around 500 cars in 52 years
A still from the CCTV footage
On Tuesday, Delhi police arrested a 77-year-old ‘serial thief’ for stealing a car from Delhi’s Rohini area.
Earlier in June, an old Maruti 800, belonging to a Rohini resident, had gone missing from outside the resident’s house. After the resident filed a theft complaint in a nearby police station, the team investigating the case came across a CCTV camera installed outside the house.
After retrieving and inspecting the CCTV footage, cops were surprised to see a senior citizen breaking into the car in less than a minute and fleeing with it in broad daylight.
The police immediately sprung into action and managed to catch him on July 5 while he was driving another car. The other car, a Maruti Esteem, was stolen by him in June.
The man, identified as Dhani Ram Mittal and known as Super Natwarlal, Indian Charles Sobhraj and Super Thief in police records, has been arrested 24 times in the past. According to police records, Mittal has 128 FIRs registered against him.
According to police officials, Mittal is a kleptomaniac. He does not need to steal for money, but he cannot resist the urge of stealing cars. Moreover, he cannot do anything else other than stealing as he has been a con man all his life.
The elderly is estimated to have stolen around 500 cars in his 52-year career. He steals only old cars and sells them to a Delhi west dealer for around Rs 40,000.
According to prison officials, everytime Mittal lands in a jail, he refuses to be lodged in a cell with older prisoners. Instead he prefers to be with young prisoners and build contacts.
The ‘Super Thief’, who was arrested earlier this year for a car theft and released only in June, claims to have stolen four cars since then.
