TWO males who ran away from police in Derry last night are currently in custody being questioned for theft and fraud.
It follows the theft of a purse from a woman in Foyle Arena on Wednesday.
She later discovered it was used to buy cigarettes and scratch cards in shops by way of contactless payment.
The woman reported three males were involved and gave descriptions of them to PSNI Foyle’s Call Management Centre based at Maydown.
Their details were circulated and two of the males were later picked up by police hiding their heads in a hedge after they were spotted acting suspiciously and took to their heels.
A police office wrote on PSNI Foyle’s Facebook page: “Ballyarnett NPT and LPT were patrolling Galliagh last night when we passed three lads who gave us the “I’m Definitely Innocent Response”.
“It usually consists of: 1. See Cops 2. Stop Dead 3. Eyes go wide with fear 4. Sprint off like your life depends on it.
“As you can imagine we find this behaviour slightly suspicious.
“We chased them through the laneways & gardens of Shantallow and after some tips from local residents we found two of them hiding with their heads buried in a hedge in someone’s garden: “Excuse me, I know you’re hiding your heads an all but we can still see the rest of your bodies”.
“At this point we always get the “Ive done nothing wrong” response. See you thought #ForrestGump was just a Movie.
“Well let me tell you – there appears to be lots of people in our City who just enjoying randomly running through the streets/ gardens/ in and out of traffic/ in circles/ over walls/ occasionally stopping to hide under a car or in a shed – I tell you this running thing has really taken off!
“Anyway, we gave the description of these three lads to our Controllers who informed us that a lady at Foyle Arena had earlier had her Purse stolen from her Baby Bag and that three males with similar descriptions had been Fraudulently using her Bank Card in shops all around Galliagh to buy Cigarettes and Scratch Cards.
“This is the nightmare with CONTACTLESS PAYMENT #KeepYourCardsSafe #CancelThemIfLost
“Two of these males were taken to Hotel Strand Road to ‘help us with our enquiries’.
“The irony is that if they had casually walked on we probably wouldn’t have even noticed them.”
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