After a lull, two youth cheated an elderly woman by posing as policeman and a daily wage worker at Annamalai Nagar on Sunday.
The modus operandi of the conmen was similar to the ones adopted by such anti-social elements in certain previous instances.
Police sources said V. Banumathi (64) was walking alone at Annamalai Nagar when she was confronted by two men. While one was a youth, the other was a middle-aged man, the sources said.
One of them went up to the aged woman and introduced himself as a policeman and advised her to keep the gold jewellery she wore safely in a purse.
The trickster, pretending to show concern for her, advised the woman to keep the valuables safely saying that property offences were taking place in the city and offered to help her.
The trickster, it is said, threatened to penalise her if she did not keep the jewellery safely.
Trusting them, the woman removed the gold jewellery and the trickster volunteered to keep it in her purse. He stealthily kept the purse containing the jewellery with him, handed over the bag to the woman, and left the spot.
The woman narrated the incident to her husband who was waiting for her at a bus stop.
The aged couple were planning to go to Srirangam to attend a function.
However, the couple returned home only to find the purse missing from the bag and realised that they had been cheated.
On a complaint from the aged woman, the Woraiyur Crime police booked a case under IPC section 420 (cheating) are probing.
Police said the criminals made away with gold jewellery weighing five sovereigns. Police personnel who went to the spot could not find any clues about the culprit.
This is not such first crime reported in Tiruchi.
Similar crimes had been committed in Srirangam, K.K. Nagar, and E. Pudur police station limits in the past. In most cases, the criminals targeted aged woman and struck in broad daylight at the opportune time and fled on a motorcycle.
Although a special team was constituted last year to nab the culprits involved in such type of offences, breakthrough eludes the police, say the sources.
