Sleeping family wakes up to a ransacked house

Puttur: Gold ornaments and cash worth lakhs of rupees were stolen by thieves who entered a house at Matha near here during the night and the theft came to light on Sunday August 25 morning. Apparently, the thieves went about doing their business while the family members were deep asleep.

The bugled house belongs to Ittamma Shetty and is located along the national highway 75 between Mangaluru and Bengaluru. The thieves made off with four bangles, a necklace of pearls, a Karimani chain, a pendant, a pair of ear rings, and finger rings, totally weighing about 15 sovereigns were stolen. Besides, they also stole Rs 5,000 in cash. Thus, the total amount of items stolen has been estimated to be at Rs 4 lakh.

Ittamma Shetty’s sons, Chandrahas Shetty and Srinivas Shetty, and wife and child of Chandrahas Shetty were living at the house at Matha while she was away on a visit to the residence of her another son. Srinivas Shetty slept in one of the rooms, Chandrahas Shetty’s wife and child slept in another room while Chandrahas Shetty slept in the hall. The family members were awake till 12 am.

On Sunday, Chandrahas Shetty’s wife woke up at around 6 am in the morning and noticed that the backside door of her house was ajar. She soon realized on closer verification that gold ornaments kept in the locker in the room where she slept had been stolen. The key of the almirah had remained inserted into its hole while the key of the locker was hidden inside the clothes kept in the almirah and the thieves found the hidden key. They visited other rooms and sifted through the almirahs there.

Since the door in question has not suffered any damage, it is presumed that the  thieves used a window located by the side of the backdoor to move the bolt of the door.

The room in which Srinivas Shetty slept alone was bolted from inside, and although the thieves moved from room to room, searched for keys and stole items, the family members remained asleep. Apparently, Chandrahas Shetty couple suffered from severe headache since Sunday morning and this has given rise to the suspicion that the thieves might have sprayed some substance to ensure the inhabitants of the house remained asleep.

Since there are no CCTV cameras nearby, the police will find it harder to find out the thieves. Recently a theft had occurred at a jewellery shop in Uppinangady and no CCTV footage was available there too.

It may be noted that back in 2015, a theft had occurred at the residence of Shambhavi Shetty, located about a hundred metres away from the above house. 15 sovereigns of ornaments, a laptop and other items worth lakhs of rupees were stolen and the case still remains unsolved.