A woman was allegedly caught shoplifting from a department store in Salt Lake on Friday morning and handed over to police.
Police sources said the woman, Shilpi Bhattacharya, had handed over 34 items — chocolates, green tea boxes, coffee powder, spices and honey — worth more than ₹17,000 which she had allegedly picked up within a short time period as soon as the store had opened.
The most expensive of the items she allegedly stole was 11 boxes of green tea worth ₹7,150, followed by coffee powder worth ₹5,520, the police said.
The store officials later reported the matter to the police and informed that the same woman had been lifting things from at least 39 outlets of the same departmental chain across the state since last year.
“On interception, the woman admitted she had done it on multiple occasions over the last two years. She admitted to having stolen things from the Salt Lake store in September, October and December last year and again in May, June and in July this year,” a store official has formally reported at Bidhannagar (south) police station.
The cops arrested the woman on Friday. She was produced before a court that sent her in judicial remand.
Shilpi, who is from Halisahar in North 24-Parganas, had allegedly stolen articles from several outlets at places like Darjeeling, Bolpur, Siliguri, Behrampore, Krishnanagar, Kurseong, Malda and Burdwan.
“We are investigating how she was managing to pull off these thefts despite the presence of CCTV cameras in these stores,” said an officer of Bidhannagar city police.
The store officials at Salt Lake have told the police that Shilpi had given a written undertaking to them admitting her thefts across the state in the last two years.
The store officials, however, found the case fit for reporting to the police on Friday itself.
Department stores have an alarm system at their exit gates to detect the smuggling out of any unbilled articles.
The police said they would probe how Shilpi passed through these alarms at the exit gates of the outlet from where she allegedly stole the articles.