A group of Omani students had their personal belongings stolen from their rented vehicle in the United States, according to the official website of the Ministry of Higher Education.

The students were having dinner at a restaurant in San Francisco when their car was broken into. The University of Ohio students were on a winter break.

Musaab Al Masrori, one of the students, told the Ministry of Higher Education’s official magazine that a laptop, four bags, a phone, a digital camera and headphones were stolen from the car. Masrori said, a passport of one of the students was also in the car, which was luckily found by a Saudi national near the crime scene and he returned it to them at the Omani embassy in Washington.

Al Masrori said that they waited for more than an hour for the police to arrive at the crime scene. He said that a man working in a nearby shop provided them the CCTV footage of the crime scene. He said his friends showed the video footage to police which had registered a case.

Talal Al Beloushi, an official at the Omani Cultural Office in Washington, DC, said that theft during the holiday season especially in the crowded places, restaurants and malls are a common phenomenon in the US.

He added that students should carry their ID cards and driving licences with them instead of passports.

source: GULF NEWS