Penza, 17 February 2016. PenzaNews. Three members of criminal gang received sentence for stealing money and valuables from several cars in Penza.

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“Several residents of the city reported to the police in the summer of 2015. According to their reports, their bags with money which they left in cars during visits to shopping centers and wholesale warehouses had been stolen by unknown thieves. One of the victims lost 115,000 rubles. In all the cases, the cars were not broken into using physical means, and the alarm was not sounding,” the press service of the regional Ministry of the Interior department informed PenzaNews agency.

The culprits used a code grabber device to get into the cars, they added.

“This device can intercept car alarm control signals and later on use them to unlock and enter the vehicle,” the police explained.

The suspects were caught red-handed in the middle of one of their thefts, the press service added.

“We found out that the culprits planned each theft meticulously, distributing roles between each other and choosing the places. One of the criminal gang members worked on the recon after the car owner, another used the code grabber device to enter the car and steal the handbag or the purse, while the third culprit remained close by in his car to drive the gang members away from the crime scene,” the police said.

The investigators found the criminal gang members to be implicated in a total of eight cases of theft and attempted theft, they explained.

“During the investigation process, the accused fully repaid the damages sustained by the victims. The Penza Oktyabrsky city area court sentenced the crimials to 4 to 7 years in prison,” the police concluded.