An alleged phone thief has been arrested in the North Sumatra capital of Medan after he flaunted his ill-gotten wealth on social media.

The suspect, identified as Taufik R Gani from the North Sulawesi capital of Manado, was arrested in his hometown on suspicion of stealing 27 iPhones, each valued at around IDR25 million (US$1,740), in Medan in February. The police were able to easily identify Taufik as a suspect because he had posted a video of himself — which went viral this past week — flaunting wads of IDR50K cash he had made from selling the phones to a fence on the music video sharing platform Tik Tok.

“He did not save the money [he made from stealing]. He broke the money down to IDR50K notes and showed it off on social media and used it to party in Bali and Jakarta with his homosexual partner,” Sugeng Wahyudi Santoso, head of a special task force at the North Sulawesi Police, told reporters in a press conference, as quoted by Tribun.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BunSgC7g_T1/

Aside from the Tik Tok video, other videos of Taufik to go viral this week include a CCTV footage that shows him breaking into the cell phone store (third slide in the post above), as well as one of him crying while in police custody and one in which he pretended to be possessed by a ghost while the police were transporting him to Medan for investigation (fourth slide).

The last two slides above also show Taufik’s leg being bandaged. According to the police, they had to shoot him during his arrest because he was trying to bite an officer in his attempt to escape capture.

Taufik has reportedly charged with theft under the KUHP (Criminal Code), and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Before his arrest, Taufik was already a controversial figure in Manado and on Indonesian social media. In 2016, he was arrested on suspicion of spreading a pornographic film online, while in 2017 he caused a controversy for allegedly insulting President Joko Widodo on social media, though neither case resulted in a criminal conviction for Taufik.

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