DUBAI // A computer science teacher stole two iPad minis from a pupil and was caught after she sold the stolen items on Dubizzle.
Jordanian L B, 29, was found guilty of theft at Dubai Criminal Court on Monday and was fined Dh2,000.
She stole the devices after getting into financial difficulties but she was only connected to the theft later when the father of the pupil received a call from an Indian man asking him for the passcode on one of the iPads.
“I was surprised, so I asked the caller how he got the iPad in the first place and he said a woman sold it to him after he saw it on Dubizzle,” said Emirati father K K.
The father said his son lost his first iPad so he was bought a second one, which the son believed he had also lost at school a few weeks before the theft came to light.
When the second iPad went missing the boy’s teacher, L B, called his mother claiming that she can locate the missing device using the Find My iPad app but that she needed the passcode.
During the call from the Indian man the father said he got the seller’s phone number, went to the school and managed to work out that it was the teacher who stole the iPads, so he called police.
The Indian man, H T, 30, was then summoned to the police station, where he told them he had spotted an advert for the two iPad minis on Dubizzle.
“She said the iPads were for her children and she asked for Dh1,200 in return for them,” he said.
“I said OK, we were texting through WhatsApp and she told me that the two iPads will be ready for sale in a week.”
He wanted them for his two children so he agreed to meet near a bank on Sheikh Zayed Road. He said that when he came to use the iPads, only one worked and the other was locked but he found a phone number on a Skype app on the working iPad and called the number, which turned out to be that of the Emirati father’s.
“I took the number and called it to ask for the passcode of the second iPad. It turned out that the iPad was stolen,” said H T.
Prosecutors said the teacher confessed to stealing the devices as she was struggling financially but she denied this in court.
salamir@thenational.ae
