Police in Warsaw, Poland, arrested a young man accused of posing as a store mannequin in order to get after-hours access to a shopping mall.
The 22-year-old man now faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of this and other similar mall burglaries using the same MO, according to a statement released on October 18.
In this latest attempt, the accused thief reportedly stood frozen in a storefront window holding a shopping bag, waiting for the mall to close. When it did, he allegedly slipped under the store’s security gate and hit the food court — twice. Police said he took a break to slip into a new outfit from one of the designer stores.
Eventually, mall security noticed the suspect on the surveillance cameras and phoned it in.
The police statement explained that the young man is believed to have swiped cash from store registers, jewelry, and more during other late-night adventures.
Given the evidence, prosecutors have decided to remand him in custody for the next three months.
This is not the first time someone has attempted to dupe store staff and security personnel in this fashion. In 2016, two alleged thieves waited until after closing time and stole approximately $12,000 worth of designer merchandise from a shop in West Sussex, England.
“They probably dressed in clothes identical to those worn by the mannequins and stood there, not moving a muscle till the shop shut and everyone went home. They took oilskin jackets, high-end designer clothes, and the like,” a store employee told The Sun.
They reportedly did not trigger the sensor alarms until the moment they left the store through a fire escape.
Another odd approach to alleged theft was employed by an accused schemer who was recently arrested in Alicante, Spain, for a string of dine-and-dash episodes. As covered in The Dallas Express, the man originally from Lithuania has allegedly faked heart attacks inside restaurants in an attempt to avoid paying for the meal at least 20 times.
He has been arrested several times for the scheme, yet the authorities say he seems unfazed by the prospect of jail. His alleged antics are so prolific that he earned a nickname among the locals, and area restaurateurs have circulated his photo to warn other eateries.
