How Catholic Church prayer gave car thieve away

Juliana Francis

Detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command have arrested a car thief after he failed to give the right response to a catholic prayer.

The suspect, Daniel, was picked up at Anifowose area of Ikeja, where he had gone to print St Ferdinand gate pass.

The gate pass would have enabled him to steal and drive out with any car from the church park, using a master remote control.

According to a police source, the remote control can open a good number of Camry cars.

The police source added: “The suspect specialized in stealing cars from where they are parked. He frequent worship places and parties, targeting Camry cars, especially those called ‘Orobo.’ Once he sees a Camry car, he would press his remote, if it clicks; it means the remote had opened that particular car. He would steal it. He confessed that the person that introduced him to the crime had earlier been arrested by SARS operatives. But the arrest of his master didn’t stop him from continuing in the crime. The suspect was arrested when he went to a printer’s shop at Anifowose area of Ikeja, to print a gate pass of a catholic church. If he had that pass, he would walk into the church park, pick any Camry car, drive to the gate and give the guards the pass, pretending that it was the pass they gave him to him when he drove in to attend service.”

Preliminary investigation showed that Daniel actually went into St Ferdinand Catholic Church, located at Ipaja, Alimosho and craftily used his smart phone to snap one of the plastic gate passes.

After leaving the church, he made a beeline for Ikeja, where he met the printer. It was at the printer’s shop that Daniel’s waterloo started.

When he got to the shop, he met a customer, waiting for the printer to attend to him. Daniel didn’t know that the waiting customer was a policeman. Daniel opened his photo gallery and showed the printer the gate pass he snapped, telling him that he wanted him to make the exact copy, with the same numerical detail.

 “The suspect told the printer that he lost his gate pass and that security guards at the church had stubbornly refused to allow him to pick his car,” disclosed a police source.

The source continued: “He claimed to have shown the guards his car documents, but they were insisting on seeing his gate pass. He claimed that was his reason for desperately needing the gate pass.”

The printer told Daniel, that the normal procedure was for him to bring a letter from the church. He also told Daniel that whenever he printed gate passes for churches, it is usually in large numbers. The printer said that asking him to print one gate pass was strange and unusual.

While this discussion was going on, the policeman was paying rapt attention. The printer, however, was a longtime friend of the policeman. The printer asked the policeman what he thought of the idea of printing a single gate pass for Daniel.

The policeman collected Daniel’s phone and looked at the gate pass and realized it was that of St Ferdinand Catholic church. He asked Daniel if he was a catholic and a member of the church, Daniel replied yes.

“The policeman then said, “Glory to Jesus,” and Daniel responded ‘Amen,’ instead of ‘Honour to Mary’ as most catholic usually do. It was the prayer and response that gave Daniel away,” said the source.

The policeman acted as if he was leaving and the printer followed him. He told the printer that he should print the gate pass for Daniel, but should ask him to come the following day to collect the pass. When Daniel came the following day, he walked into the waiting arms of policemen.

While fielding questions from policemen, Daniel said that he usually frequent churches to steal cars. He confessed that whenever he enters a church, he would start watching and monitoring people parking Camry cars, he would later step out to press the remote and any car that responds to the remote, he would enter and drive it out.

The police said: “The suspect said that under that guise, he had been able to steal more than 20 cars. Police recovered 15 car keys from him. He said that it’s not all Camry cars that the remote can connect to and unlock. He said that he had stolen cars parked at churches, parties and banks.”