A woman and a man posing as customers walked out of a jewellery shop in Gorakhpur with two gold rings after keeping the shopkeeper busy with requests to see more jewellery, and the entire theft was captured on the store's CCTV camera. The shopkeeper wasted no time approaching the police once he discovered the rings were missing, and officers are now working to trace the pair.
A locket request that turned into a distraction
The incident took place at Ramvachan Jewellers, located at Katra Khirwania crossing in the Ramgarhtal area of Gorakhpur. According to shop owner Ramvachan, a resident of Bargo village in the Ramgarhtal area, a woman arrived at his shop on September 6, 2026, at around 2:26 pm, accompanied by a man riding a Pulsar motorcycle. The woman told him she wanted to buy a gold locket and a ring. Taking her for a genuine customer, Ramvachan brought out around 10 rings at once and laid them out for her to examine. As she looked through them one by one, she said she liked a particular locket and asked him to also show her a thick gold chain to go with it. While Ramvachan was busy pulling out the chain, the man who had come with her placed two of the rings in her hand.
The missing rings surfaced only during a recount
According to the complaint, the woman used that moment to quietly slip both rings onto her fingers. With Ramvachan's attention fixed on the chain and the rest of the jewellery, she kept talking to the man and calmly walked out of the shop with him. It was only a little later, when Ramvachan sat down to count his stock, that he realised two rings were missing. Suspecting theft, he pulled up the shop's CCTV footage, which clearly recorded the woman putting the rings onto her hand before leaving. The footage also showed the two of them riding away on the motorcycle once they were outside the shop.
Ramvachan then went to the Azad Nagar police post and filed a written complaint, asking that a case be registered against the unidentified woman and that the two stolen gold rings be recovered.
Police trace the accused through the shop's CCTV
Once the complaint reached them, police in the Ramgarhtal area swung into action and began investigating. Gorakhpur SP City Nimish Patil said his department had received information that a woman and a man had entered a jewellery shop in the Ramgarhtal police station area posing as customers. He said the two had entered the shop on the pretext of looking at rings and fled the moment they got the chance. Ramgarhtal police reached the shop as soon as they were alerted, and the footage from its CCTV camera allowed them to trace both the woman and the man. Patil added that, based on the complainant's written statement, the police are proceeding to register a case under the relevant sections of law.
Not an isolated trick at jewellery counters
This is not the first time jewellery shops in the district have been targeted using this kind of distraction. Shopkeepers have previously reported similar incidents in which customers kept them occupied with one item while making off with another the moment their guard was down. Investigators say CCTV footage remains the most reliable evidence in these cases, which is why shop owners are routinely advised to stay alert with every customer, hand over only a limited number of pieces at a time, and keep their cameras running at all times.
