A 23-year-old man was arrested from Ambernath last week for tampering with lifts in residential societies and stealing their control devices.

Police said the accused, Vikas Narendra Tiwari, used to work as a lift repairman and was well versed with its machinery.

Tiwari was caught after police received several complaints of lift tampering from Badlapur, Ambernath and Ulhasnagar.

Mahesh Tarade, senior police inspector of Ulhasnagar crime branch 4, said, “There were repeated incidents of lift breakdowns in several residential societies in Badlapur, Ambernath and Ulhasnagar. Residents realised the control drives of these lifts were missing. When many such complaints kept pouring in, we suspected there might be a connection.”

Using CCTV footage from several apartments, police identified Tiwari, who was seen entering these lifts.

“He used to enter the lifts and go to the top floor. He opened the lift box, stole control devices and escaped. In some cases, lifts which had backups used to function for an hour to two after which they broke down. He stole 49 devices from housing societies in the past year,” Tarade said.

He used to sell them at different places.

On May 19, Tiwari was caught at a checkpoint in Ambernath, riding a bike and carrying a stolen lift device.

“We recovered 39 lift devices worth ₹7.8 lakh from him. He is also wanted in 11 other cases of similar thefts and a bike theft at Hill Line,” he added.

First Published: May 25, 2019 00:44 IST