Sugar, spices, pulses, cooking oil and a 25-litre can of kerosene, apart from gold jewellery and cash, were stolen from a residence in Rajamangalam on Thursday.
The residents had hidden the jewellery in containers used for storing pulses, which the burglars managed to find.
Sources with the Rajamangalam police said the burglary took place at a second-floor residence on the thickly populated Thiru-vi-ka Street in Then Palani Nagar. The residents, couple Karunakaran, a businessman, and Gayathri, had left for Kovilambakkam on Thursday morning after locking the house. Their son had gone to school.
“Around 4 p.m., a woman resident of the building had gone to dry clothes on the terrace of the three-storey building and noticed that the main door of Karunakaran’s house was ajar. She informed other tenants of the building and one of them called Karunakaran on his mobile phone,” said an investigating officer attached to the Rajamangalam police station.
The couple rushed back to find the house ransacked.
Gayathri had hidden 43 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs. 76,000 in jars containing chips, spices and coffee, in the kitchen. The burglars, who gained entry after breaking open the front gate and door, broke open the almirah but could not find any valuables, the police said.
“They then entered the kitchen and spotted a jar with currency notes. Realising that the family members had hidden valuables in the kitchen, the culprits searched all the utensils and jars and pocketed 35 sovereigns of gold. They also bundled up two litres of cooking oil, 25 litres of kerosene, spices, sugar, pulses and other items from the kitchen and fled,” the officer said.
The culprits left rice stored in the kitchen untouched, and eight sovereigns of jewellery buried deep inside a can went unnoticed, the police said.
Karunakaran alerted the police and a team from the Rajamangalam police station reached the house and carried out a preliminary investigation. A case of burglary has been registered.
