Song of loyalty is the anthem of Shoppers Stop. But a woman employee at its Koramangala unit was doing just the opposite, all the while the anthem was playing. The employee, attached to the Titan watch section of the showroom, stole watches worth over Rs 1 lakh and has since been arrested after her act was caught on the CCTV cameras. She stole watches with the help of her associate, who hid them in the washroom. The duo had escaped with 14 watches, including five of Titan, five of Tommy Hilfiger, one of FCUK, two of Fasttrack and a Citizen watch, all worth Rs 1.03 lakh.
The jurisdictional Adugodi police said the accused, Navrathna Biswas (24) of Arakere and Sanman, have been arrested. Every day, Shoppers Stop plays its loyalty anthem at 10.45 am and the staff in the shop should assemble for it in the common hall. But Navarathna slipped back into her counter without anyone noticing it and picked 14 watches from the counters. She handed them over to Sanman, who was waiting for her near the washroom on the first floor. By 11.15 am she escaped from the shop. Sanman had entered the shop as a customer at 11 am which is recorded in the CCTV cameras at the store, the police said.
Department manager Syed Tousif came in the second shift and enquired about the missing staff. Security guard Raju said he saw Navarathna going to the staff washroom and then going out of the shop. Tousif tried calling Navarathna, but her phone was switched off. Navrathna had made the slip bills for the stolen goods to prove that she was innocent. A pink slip of the bill is given to the customer, who has to pay it at the cash counter and come back and collect the goods from the sales counters.
She told her colleagues that the watches had been billed. When Tousif did the routine check, he found that the some watches were missing and the pink slips had not been paid for. He immediately informed the unit head and they both checked the CCTV footage. They alerted the watch company and Titan Retail Operations Manager Namratha Chikkara filed a complaint with the police. Navrathna and Suman were arrested and eight watches were recovered from them. The police said it was not clear why she had not sold the watches.