NEW DELHI: "Join

," read the

network as a 34-year-old software engineer entered his home on Sunday night. The puzzled man looked at the list again to check if he had misread it. He refreshed the list, switched his phone off and on but the name continued to remain active on the list of Wi-Fi networks. He then made a PCR call, informing the cops about the network that was present in their area but whose exact location could not be found.

The local police was called in and they also received the same set of networks on their phones. The teams checked for the possible addresses in the night but when the local inquiry did not yield anything, the local

unit was roped in and other security agencies were also notified.

Investigating officers said that they first created a radius in which the Wi-Fi network was available and chalked out a map based on it. Through this, a list of addresses was shortlisted the next day and the cops started checking the houses for Wi-Fi addresses that were being operated by the inhabitants there. Meanwhile, the cops also contacted the local internet service providers in order to obtain information from them about their customers who could be running the network.

Subsequently, the teams managed to contact a telecom shop in the vicinity and the owner, Gulshan Tiwari (60), confirmed that he had a Wi-Fi connection that was installed on November 26 in his shop. However, Tiwari, who is a native of Lucknow, feigned ignorance about the name or how it was being operated, claiming little technical know-how.

The mystery finally unravelled when Tiwari's younger son admitted to the cops that it was him who had put that name on their family Wi-Fi network. He told cops that earlier, the username was set after his elder brother's name when it was being installed. The 25-year-old later told cops that after the Wi-Fi was installed, many people were able to connect to their system and use their internet. Fed up with this, he came up with the idea of setting a 'scary' name, which he thought would dissuade his neighbours from using their internet. DCP (

) Anto Alphonse said that no case was registered as no suspicious activities were found running on the said Wi-Fi network and they just asked the family to change the username.