In a daylight burglary at an apartment complex on the densely populated Venkatachalam Chetty Street in Ice House, culprits broke into a locked house and fled with nearly 100 sovereigns of jewellery, silver items weighing five kg and over Rs. 9,000.
The burglary took place at the first floor flat on Monday afternoon when the owner of the house Ramadevi had gone to her husband Raghu’s shop in Triplicane to give him his lunch.
She returned home around 2 p.m. and found the main lock missing and the door unlocked.
“Ramadevi, Raghu and their son, who works with a cellular phone service provider, had a house key each. Thereafter, she called her son to find out if he had left the door open while leaving for work and then, realised they had been burgled,” said an investigating officer.
The suspects had broken open the main door lock, gone through two almirahs and stolen the gold, silver items and cash in the house. It is suspected that the burglars must have taken the loot in a bag that originally had cigarette cartons.
Raghu had bought the cigarettes for sale at the newspaper shop he runs in Triplicane, the officer added.
After Ramadevi informed her husband about the burglary, Raghu rushed home and alerted the police after going through the whole house.
A team from Ice House police reached the spot and carried out a preliminary probe till evening.
Fingerprint experts also combed the scene for clues.