A few residents of a house on Gajapathy Street, Ice House, who slept with the doors and windows open on Wednesday night to beat the heat, lodged a complaint with the police next day that burglars had stolen mobile phones and cash from the house.
Gajapathy Street is a narrow street located off Dr. Besant Road under the Ice House police station limits. A narrow lane leads to a two-storey house in which a few families live.
“On Thursday morning, we found our mobile phones and some cash missing. When we checked with our neighbours — Pavitra and Sangeetha — they also said the phones were missing,” N. Aranganathan, a driver who resides on the second floor, said.
The incident shows how burglars carefully target houses during summer.
People who do not have air-conditioners either sleep on the terraces or with doors and windows open to let the air in during power outages that have become frequent these days.
Aranganathan also suspects that the burglars could have sprayed some chloroform. “We wake up early. On Thursday, we could not and felt tired,” he said.
‘No chloroform’But police refute his theory and say chloroform was not used. “The residents should not sleep with doors and windows open during summer. Burglars familiar with the locality target such houses. They also steal gold chains from men and women who sleep on the terrace at night or break into their houses,” said a police officer.
Besides, the burglars also target houses of people who have gone on vacations. “This is a problem as those going on a long vacation do not inform the local police station,” a police officer said.
The latest victim was R.C. Paul Kanakaraj, president of Madras High Court Advocates Association, whose house was targeted on Wednesday.
Another problem that troubles the police is the shortage of manpower. “Earlier, we used to have youth brigade personnel to assist us, now they are undergoing training. Each police man has to do night shift and seldom do we spend time with our families. All this will affect our work,” he says.
Meanwhile, residents of some areas complain that patrolling is weak as the vehicles rarely move around.
