A man tried to loot Canara Bank's Industrial Area branch in Sikar aorund 11AM on Thursday.
Trying to loot a bank toting an empty pistol can boomerang especially if you don't tie up all the loose ends, like snatching a bank employee's mobile phone mid call, but then forgetting to switch it off.
This is exactly what happened in Rajasthan's Sikar, where the police caught a man just when he was about to get away with a heist thanks to a tip-off from a bank staffer's relative in Humangarh - about 400km away.
According to the police, the man has been arrested and identified as Kishore. He was caught with Rs 1.5 crore cash and 20 kg gold he had stolen. They have also recovered an unloaded gun he had used to threaten employees at a branch of Canara Bank on Thursday morning.
A masked Kishore entered the bank at 10.57 AM and ordered some bank employees to step out of their cubicles, a bank employee told NDTV, adding, "At first we thought he was a health department official on inspection and he would reprimand us because we were not wearing masks. But when he came to my cabin I saw the gun in his hand."
According to the employee, Kishore made the junior staff tie the hands of all senior management, barring the branch manager, and made them lie face down. He then told the Branch Manager, Suman, to tie up the others, took her phone and asked for keys to the bank safe.
"However, he forgot to switch off Sumna's phone and kept it on the table. The call she was on continued, allowing her relative to hear commotion in the background and alert the police, including the local police station," the employee and eye witness said.
Just then, the staff also tried to buy time by telling Kishore than two sets of keys were needed to open the safe and that the person with the second set was yet to arrive for the day, the man said.
However, Kishore eventually got the better of them and siphoned the bank lockers. But just as he was about to leave the branch, the police arrived and arrested him.
A case has been filed against Kishore, who works as a painter at a car workshop. He has no criminal antecedents.