Conmen seem to be having a free run in the city if their latest illegal act of cheating a gullible resident by claiming to be policemen and walking away with valuables is any indication.
Days after tricksters cheated two women at Tiruvanaikoil, conmen struck once again – this time in the thickly populated K.K. Nagar area on Thursday afternoon.
Police sources said two motorcycle-borne men followed 68-year-old K.Menaka at Kumaran Street near Rani Mangamma Salai while the aged woman was returning home on foot from a grocery shop.
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The criminals, who approached the elderly woman posing as police personnel, advised her with their glib talk to keep the jewellery she was wearing safe. The two offered to wrap the gold chain and bangles in a piece of paper if she gave it to them.
The woman removed the gold chain and a couple of bangles she wore and gave them to the tricksters. The conmen wrapped the valuables in a piece of paper and gave it to her and left the spot in a flash.
Back home, the woman was shocked to find that the paper contained only small stones inside instead of valuables, the sources said.
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The woman, who was cheated of five sovereigns of gold jewellery, lodged a complaint with the K.K. Nagar Crime police station where a case under IPC section 420 (cheating) was registered. The identity of the accused was yet to be established, the sources said.
The modus operandi of the culprits involved in the Thursday’s incident was similar to the one that took place a few days ago at Tiruvanaikoil in Srirangam police station limits where two women were cheated of their gold jewellery.
The timing chosen by the “policemen” to strike on Thursday was broad daylight yet again with their target being an aged woman.
Tricksters have targeted old women as the victims have difficulty in identifying them. Conmen seem to have struck at will and keep shifting their area of operation if the Thursday’s incident is any incident.
Similar offences have also taken place at E. Pudur and other places in the city. This is despite periodic awareness messages from the city police to the residents to remain cautious.