Man snatches mobile phones from patients, attenders in Coimbatore hospital

COIMBATORE: The city police arrested a 32-year-old man on Thursday for snatching mobile phones from patients and their attenders in Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). The police seized seven mobile phones from the man, identified as N Ramesh of Mundur in Palakkad district, Kerala.
Ramesh told the police that he had started to snatch mobile phones as he was out of work due to the lockdown. The man was working in a bakery here before the lockdown began.
Ramesh stayed on the CMCH premises and had free food from an Amma canteen there.
He befriended a few patients in the hospital and requested them to give him their mobile phones to call his family members. Believing him, the patients gave him their phones. On getting the phone, Ramesh would run away. In some cases, he snatched mobile phones and ran away.
Later, he would return to the hospital and continue to either dupe people of their mobile phones or snatch the devises. He would also steal mobile phones from people who were sleeping on the hospital premises.
People, who lost their phones, spotted Ramesh in CMCH on Thursday and caught him. He was handed over to Race Course (crime) police inspector Sujatha.
The man told the police that he planned to sell all the stolen phones in Palakkad. However, due to the lockdown restrictions, he was unable to travel to his hometown.
Inquiries revealed that he was already facing a mobile phone theft case in Kerala.