A man by the name of Masum was caught by police on Sunday when they found him breaking and entering and then squatting in North End Coffee owner Rick Hubbard’s empty apartment in Gulshan. The incident took place on the first floor of a six-storey building on Road-89 of Gulshan.
He was caught after three days when Rick’s neighbor Sumagna Karim’s driver, Rezaul Karim, saw him inside the building.
When police arrived they found the apartment locked from the inside and when they finally broke through the door, Masum was found in Rick’s bathroom.
It appears that Masum did not steal anything from Rick’s home who is currently in the United States but did find that he broke the grill into Sumagna Karim’s balcony.
“He ran into Rick’s house when he saw me, leaving the opened grill from our balcony [of Sumagna’s house],” behind,” said Rezaul Karim.
The cut grill would have allowed for Masum to enter Sumagna’s house undetected.
Police found two other cut open window grills in Rick’s house which is how they assume Masum got in.
Police say he admitted to eating Rick’s food and drinking his cooking sherry. “He entered the house two or three days ago,” said Sub Inspector Mofazzel Hossain of Gulshan police station.
“Masum was also arrested before. He is probably mentally challenged as he was incoherent, and kept changing his statement. We have seen videos of him dancing around while stealing from other houses,” said Gulshan police station Inspector (investigation) Aminul Islam.
It is not immediately clear if Masum was drunk when he was arrested which resulted in his incoherence or if his glee at stealing prompted a dance.
“He also tends to change his statement several times. He said that recently he was imprisoned in an Indian jail for 90 days,” the inspector added.
The building is owned by Asset Developments and Holdings Limited and there are questions about how Masum could have evaded detection in a highly secure building in one of Dhaka’s more secure neighborhoods.
However, no case has been filed in connection. Md Imdadul Haque, supervisor of the building, said he has asked the residents to lodge a case as they were subject to break-in and attempted theft.
Sumagna Karim said: “We will do whatever the police recommend.”
Assistant Commissioner (AC) Md Rafiqul Islam said: “Neither the coffee shop owner nor the building manager is wanting to file a case. How can we prosecute if they don’t formally complain?”
He also said, the thief is not a member of any criminal ring.
