A spate of chain-snatching incidents has occurred since Thursday evening, under the jurisdiction of four different police stations around Tambaram. The latest victim is a class XII student, S. Sindhu (16), who was walking back home to NGO Colony from her tuition classes in Hasthinapuram, Chromepet, around 8.30 p.m. On Hasthinapuram Main Road, two young men on a motorcycle stopped near her, snatched her 1.5 sovereign gold chain and sped away.
On Thursday evening alone, four such incidents were reported in different places. At Gowrivakkam under the Selaiyur limits, a 38-year-old woman was relieved of her gold chain weighing three sovereigns. Josephine, was returning home to Nehru Street, when a youth snatched her chain and rode away on a motorcycle driven by his waiting accomplice.
In Tambaram, Vimala (55) was returning to her home in Kulakkarai after work, when a youth asked for directions. Even as she was telling him, the youth snatched her chain weighing four sovereigns and fled. In Pozhichalur, R. Jhansi was returning home to Ramanathan Nagar when a youth snatched her gold chain weighing seven sovereigns and fled. In New Colony, under the Chromepet police station limits, Mythili, after offering prayers at a temple, was returning home when two young men on a motorcycle snatched her chain and sped away. The chain weighed five sovereigns.
Chain snatching has become the most common crime in the city’s suburbs, even topping house break-ins. Assailants generally target single woman in isolated spots, police said.
