In a theft committed by diverting the attention of the victim, unidentified men fled with a suitcase containing Rs.1 lakh, a revolver, six bullets, credit card, passport and some business documents from a car on Anna Salai on Friday.
Later, the suitcase was found at a parking lot of a commercial complex on Kodambakkam High Road without the cash.
Sources with the Chintadripet police said the incident occurred at 2.30 p.m. Anbazhagan (59), a mill owner from Salem had gone to the Town and Country Planning office on Anna Salai after leaving behind the suitcase in his car. “Three men, including one who claimed to be speech impaired, helped Anbazhagan's driver Velu park the car. Then, the speech impaired person pointed to the boot of the car. Velu got down and spotted a few currency notes and started picking them up even as the men fled the scene,” an investigating officer said.
In the evening, Anbazhagan realised that the suitcase was missing and lodged a complaint with the Chintadripet police.
Around 9 p.m., a motorcyclist spotted the abandoned suitcase in the complex and handed it over to the manager of the building.
“On Saturday afternoon, the manager found a visiting card of the complainant in the suitcase and telephoned him. He went to the complex and got the suitcase which had all the missing items, including the revolver and the bullets, except the Rs.1 lakh cash,” the police officer said.
The complainant handed over the suitcase to the Chintadripet police who are investigating.
Similar cases
In a similar case of attention diversion, a former MLA lost his suitcase containing four credit cards and Rs.10,000.
Virugambakkam police sources said at 7.30 p.m., the former MLA, Sathiah (63), was getting into his car on Arunachalam Street, Saligramam, after purchasing medicines from a pharmacy.
A man pointed out to Sathiah some currency notes lying on the road near the car.
As he turned to that direction, the suspect fled with his suitcase, sources said.
In another incident, a suitcase containing Rs.1.5 lakh was stolen from a car, parked on Bhashyam Road, T. Nagar, after diverting the attention of the driver.
In his complaint to Soundarapandianar Angadi police, Thangavel (44) of Coimbatore said that he had come to T. Nagar for Deepavali shopping. At 6.45 p.m. on Friday, a man told the driver of his car that its boot was damaged.
When the driver got down, the man fled with the suitcase.
