Man pretends to be mannequin until Warsaw mall closes then steals from it

A man posed as a mannequin in a Warsaw shopping centre, waited until it closed, and then stole jewellery. On another occasion, he used the same trick to eat food at one of the mall’s restaurants and then to swap his clothes for new ones in a store.

“The 22-year-old came up with an idea for how to remain unnoticed in a shopping centre after it closed,” said Robert Szumiata, a spokesman for Warsaw police. They have released CCTV images of the man’s antics (with his face partially hidden in accordance with Polish law on criminal suspects).

“With a bag in his hand, he stood still in a shop window, pretending to be a display mannequin,” added Szumiata. “When he felt it was safe, he went ‘hunting’ and robbed a jewellery stand.”

On a separate occasion, after eating at one of the restaurants, he “slipped under the steel curtain to a branded clothing store to exchange his clothes for new ones”, said the spokesman. Afterwards, “he once again stopped at the restaurant to have another meal”.

The man’s luck ran out, however, when security staff at the mall spotted and detained him, then called the police. Szumiata notes that the 22-year-old was already known to police for stealing money from cash registers at another shopping centre after it had closed.

He has now been charged with burglary and theft, crimes that could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years. He has also been placed in pretrial detention.

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Image credits: KRP Warszawa I

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.