14 hours ago
Edinburgh student's quest to find 'stolen curry' as Whistle Binkies night goes wrong
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An Edinburgh University student has retold his epic quest to find his stolen laptop bag.
Dinesh Parthasarathy, a PhD student living in Holyrood, was out in the Old Town with friends when he was dancing the night away at Whistlebinkies.
But disaster struck when he realised someone had pinched his laptop bag on March 1 at around 2am in the morning.
As well as his laptop being taken, Dinesh was also devastated when a tasty curry he had made for friends was also swiped, denying his group a late night snack.
'It was a Friday night at Whistlebinkies, and the live music was particularly amazing,' he said. 'I was out with my mates, enjoying a few pints, and we had left our jackets - and my backpack - by a table.
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'I had been to this place many times and trusted the crowd. There was a group of middle-aged women at the table next to where I left my backpack, happily enjoying their night.
'For about 40 minutes, we were near the stage, completely immersed in the music. When it was time to leave, I went to grab my backpack—only to realize it was gone. My mates and I searched the area, but no luck.
'To make matters worse, my phone was dead, so I couldn't check its location or do much about it that night. I tried to stay optimistic, thinking maybe someone had taken it by mistake rather than it being outright stolen.
'Once I got home, I checked the live location. At that point, I decided I'd report it to the police in the morning.'
Dinesh woke up hungover but determined on the Saturday morning and contacted the police for assistance before he took matters into his own hands.
'The backpack wasn't just any bag—it had my university laptop, a couple of hard drives, and, perhaps most importantly, some boxes of South Indian curry (kuruma) I had lovingly prepared on the Friday,' he said.
'It had turned out especially flavourful, and even my white mates had loved it - so you can imagine my devastation. The police took all the necessary details and advised me not to go to the location myself.
'But my tough Mexican friend was keen on helping. He was convinced we should track it down ourselves. We headed to the Morningside neighbuorhood, where the live location was pointing, and did some light reconnaissance.
'A gentleman let us into the building, but the backpack could've been in any of the flats. Since we couldn't do much, we returned to Whistlebinkies to ask for the CCTV footage to identify the perpetrator.
'The staff, while helpful, told us we couldn't access the footage unless we had the police with us. However, they did offer us free pints on the house for our trouble - so, silver linings. At this point, I was coming to terms with the fact that my laptop was probably gone and started thinking about how to request a new one from the university.'
But all hope was not lost, for a police officer later called Dinesh to inform him he had a lead after checking the footage.
'A couple of days later, he wrote back with a major breakthrough: after reviewing hours of footage, he spotted a white female walking out of the pub with my backpack,' he said.
'Her friend had used contactless payment at the bar, meaning they had her bank details. With that lead, they could track down the thief. This gave me new hope.
'A few more days passed, and then, on March 10, I got another call. I had just woken up, still groggy, when the officer said, 'Mate, I recovered your backpack. Where do I meet you?'
'When we met up, he asked me to check if all my belongings were there. To my surprise,
everything was intact - except for the boxes of curry. It seemed like the thief wasn't in it for the laptop, the hard drives, or even the bag itself - just the food.
'Honestly, I can't even be mad at that. I have to give a big shoutout to Police Scotland for some truly competent detective work.
'Moral of the story? Maybe don't trust hungry strangers with your South Indian curry.'
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Police Scotland confirmed they had arrested and charged a 54-year-old woman who was released on an undertaking to appear in court. However the case against the woman was dropped.
A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services spokesperson: 'It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review, and following full and careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the available admissible evidence, the Procurator Fiscal decided that there should be no further criminal proceedings at this time.
"The Crown reserves the right to proceed in the future should further evidence become available or if there is a change in circumstances."
Dinesh said he did not mind the case being dropped as he had written to police to say if the perpetrator did not have a criminal record, then he would rather she did not face charges.
