‘Friendly’ ATM thief arrested, confesses to stealing Rs6 lakh

Help from a kind stranger proved very costly for two women in the city and several other victims of an ATM card thief across the state. For, they had been ‘helped’ by Rajiv Bhatt, 24, who exchanged their ATM cards with fake ones and withdrew money from their accounts.

The cops came to know of his 'unique' modus operandi after he was handed over to the Maninagar police on charges of exchanging ATM cards with people without their knowledge and then stealing money from their accounts.

In fact, Bhatt would first approach his victims, most of whom didn't know how to use ATM machines, and then offer to help them. He would then remember the victim's pin number and after helping them withdraw money would return them their card.
But what the victims mostly failed to notice was that the card that Bhatt returned was not theirs but one of the several fake ATM cards that he kept with himself.

Bhatt is a resident of Juni Golwad, Astodia and has been reportedly involved in at least two cases in Maninagar where he duped two women. He was arrested by Bhavnagar police, where he had been living for quite some time.

"He was arrested a couple of days ago in Bhavnagar. We have two cases against him in which he duped two women and withdrew Rs25,000 and Rs18,000 from different ATMs using their cards. He has also confessed to stealing Rs6 lakh over the last many years from different people across the state," said JM Solanki, sub inspector of Maninagar police station who is investigating the matter.

Solanki said Bhatt had several fake ATM cards with him and would prowl around ATMs looking for people who had difficulty in operating the system. "Once he identified his prey, he would approach them and offer help. He would remember the pin number that the victims told him. He would exchange the victim's card with one of his fake cards and then use the pin number to withdraw money," said Solanki.