Duo held after car for sale is stolen

Police foil bid to smuggle vehicle outside the country so it could be sold clandestinely

Two men were arrested for the theft of a brand new Land Cruiser after deceiving the owner by posing as buyers and swapping a spare key once they had completed a test drive, a police official said.

Brigadier Ahmad Thani Bin Gulaitha, director of Rafaa police station and head of Police Stations Council in Dubai Police, said the duo who approached the car owner pretending to be genuine buyers were professional criminals and made off with the vehicle without leaving a trace.

“The pair found the car after the owner posted an advertisement online to sell the vehicle. They contacted the owner many times claiming they want to buy the car and later went to check the car. They kept negotiating with the owner to convince him that they are serious,” Brigadier Bin Gulaitha said.

Spare key swapped

After a couple of days, the Arab duo asked the owner for the spare key so they could have a test drive and replaced the key with another one when they returned the car to the owner, who couldn’t notice the difference since he hadn’t been using the spare key.

“On the same day, they went to the owner’s building in Dubai and stole the car, which was parked under the building.”

The pair went to a third suspect who told them that he was willing to buy the car from them but only once they had smuggled it to a neighbouring country.

The owner, upon finding the car missing, alerted Dubai Police, who launched an extensive hunt for the stolen vehicle.

“The owner told the officers about the two men who wanted to buy the car and police arrested them. One of them confessed to stealing the car to smuggle it outside the country and sell it. The second suspect denied the theft claiming that he went with his friend just to check the car and didn’t know that his friend would steal it later,” Brigadier Bin Gulaitha added.

The pair were referred to Dubai Public Prosecution to finish the investigation.