Unidentified persons broke into the house of a pastor at Tirunagar here and decamped with 30 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs.1 lakh on Monday night.
The crime came to light only on Tuesday morning after the family members noticed the cupboards broken open.
The pastor of a local church, P. Jayachandran, and his family members were fast asleep when the robbers gained entry into the house at Berakah Nagar by breaking open the rear door.
The iron grille gate had not been locked, the police said.
The culprits broke open a cupboard, and took the keys of two other cupboards which were kept in it. Then they opened the other cupboards and took the gold jewellery and the cash.
“Since all the three family members were sleeping inside an air-conditioned room, they did not hear any sound in the other room,” a police officer said.
The police pressed into service a sniffer dog. Forensic experts lifted fingerprints from the scene of crime.
Robbery at knifepoint
In another incident reported at Alagusundaram Nagar in Pykara, an unidentified person robbed an elderly woman of her four-sovereign gold chain at around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday. The police said the robber had entered the victim’s house by breaking open the rear door. He was removing the gold chain of Dhanalakshmi (65), when she and husband S. Ramasubramanian (75), a retired Forest Department employee, woke up.
When the couple tried to raise an alarm, the robber silenced them by brandishing a knife.
Chain snatched
P. Elamaiammal (75) lost her over two-sovereign gold chain at Doak Nagar at around 7.40 a.m. on Tuesday. Elamaiammal, a resident of 14 Cross Street, was on a morning walk, when she was intercepted by a youth at 12 Cross Street.
Suddenly the youth snatched her chain and fled on a motorbike.
