Patna, January 20: In a bizarre incident, robbers made away with a 29 ft tall mobile tower in Patna's Sabzibagh locality posing as employees of the service provider. The thieves uprooted the mobile tower and carried it away. The robbery was so smoothly conducted that the crime had not been detected until a technical team of the company that had installed the equipment conducted a survey of mobile towers ahead of its 5G rollout.

TOI reported that the theft was reported to cops on Monday. The tower worth thousands of rupees was installed on the roof of a four-storey house belonging to a man named Shaheen Qayoom. Rajasthan Shocker: Thieves Arrive in Car, Steal Light Bulbs From Shops in Nawalgarh; Video Goes Viral.

An FIR has been registered on the statement of the company's area manager Mohammad Shahnawaz Anwar against unknown persons. As per the complaint, the company had done its last inspection on August 31, 2022. At that time, the mobile tower was there. The company has done a second inspection recently and then the tower was found to be missing. Jharkhand Shocker: 'Schools' Train Students to Steal Mobile Phones With Consent of Parents in Sahibganj.

Sabihul Haque, SHO of Pirbahore police station, said that the tower was installed in the year 2006 by Aircel but in 2017 they sold the tower to GTL company. As the mobile tower was not working, the company did not pay rent to the house owner for the past few months. The house owner asked the company to remove the tower from their roof.

House owner Qayoom said that some persons, who claimed to be employees of GTL company, came here four months ago and removed the tower. Later they put the equipment on the truck and took it away. They also told the house owner that the tower was experiencing some technical glitch, and a new one would be put in place soon.

The company however claims that their employees did not remove the tower. Investigation into the incident is underway.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 20, 2023 03:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).