From hacking to phishing to credit card skimming, criminals are increasingly using technology these days. But there are still a few who rely on old-school methods.
Case in point: a gang of robbers drilled a hole into a jewellery shop in Rajagopal Nagar here in the wee hours of Tuesday, overpowered and gagged an employee who was sleeping inside, and decamped with one kg of gold and two kg of silver articles.
The police were alerted around 4.30 a.m., quite some time after the robbery, when a few passers-by noticed the hole in the wall.
A team from Rajagopal Nagar police station visited the spot with a sniffer squad and forensic experts, but they could make little headway as the burglars had sprinkled chilli powder on the ground to mask their scent.
The gang used the vacant plot behind the shop to their advantage. “They managed to drill through the back of the wall to gain entry. The iron grills that had been built for extra protection were also broken,” a senior police officer said.
What is more, the shop had neither a security alarm nor CCTV cameras.
“The gang overpowered Jagadish (the employee), who was sleeping inside,” an officer said. “But he could have alerted the police or his employer while they were drilling the hole.”
Jagadish told the police that he did not hear the drilling because of the noise made by the old ceiling fan inside the shop. Nevertheless, investigators are not ruling out his involvement in the theft.
