The Adajan police caught the two 15-year-old boys, students of Sharda Yatan School at Piplod, at the Bhulkha Bhawan School Crossroad in Adjan, in the afternoon. The two were frisked and five phones were recovered.

Upon questioning, the boys said the phones belonged to their cousins and their father. Later, they accepted that they had stolen them. The police informed their parents of the arrests.

After tracing the locations from where the phones were stolen, the police called in the owners and lodged a complaint against the two.

One of the students said: “We were jealous of our classmates who were using mobile phones to impress girls. Our parents could not gift us such expensive phones, so we decided to steal them.”

He added: “We usually stole phones kept near the window. After initial success, we started stealing expensive mobile phones. When our parents inquired about them, we told them they belonged to our friends.”