Four men assaulted and restrained a security guard before stealing Dh250,000 worth of electric cables from a warehouse in Dubai, the criminal court heard.
On June 25, one of the four defendants approached the Pakistani guard, 27, asking if he could sit outside the warehouse to escape the summer heat until his friends arrived.
Shortly after the guard let him sit down the three other defendants arrived, dragged him into the toilet and restrained him, according to court records.
"I asked him to leave and told him it's not allowed for strangers to sit in front of the warehouse but he kept stalling and calling his friends asking them to bring lunch for me. I told him I can't accept it, but suddenly his friends showed up, two of them restrained me and the others beat me up before dragging me to the toilet and tying me up with ropes," said the guard, who began chewing through his restraints in attempts to free himself.
Three hours later he managed to untie himself and discovered that the warehouse's doors were forced open and electric cables worth hundred of thousands of dirhams stolen.
"I called police, the warehouse supervisor and the manager as well," he said.
Police arrested the four men the next month.
The Pakistani suspects, aged between 27 and 37, said during police questioning that they entered the country through Fujairah from Oman.
They told police they worked in Sharjah before deciding to rob the warehouse in Al Quoz, which they came to know about through a friend.
"They sold the cables in Abu Dhabi and split the profit. Three of them said the 31-year-old defendant was the master mind behind the robbery," said a policeman, 40.
In Dubai Criminal Court last week, the defendants denied a charge of armed robbery. Three of the four were charged with physical assault and confinement, which they denied in court.
Their verdicts will be issued on December 10.
