Cash, jewellery stolen from car

Thiruvananthapuram: A gang of migrant thieves stole gold ornaments weighing nearly 40 sovereigns and Rs.12,000 in cash from a woman who was sitting inside a parked car at Thampanoor on Friday morning.

Circle Inspector, Thampanoor, C. Anil Kumar identified the victim as Indu Rani, 44, of Malayinkeezh. She had come to Thampanoor along with her husband, Vijayakumar, and daughter, Arathi, to book a rail ticket to Chennai. Indu Rani was alone in the car when the incident happened.

Around 11.45 a.m., two Hindi-speaking men approached her and said there were some currency notes on the road near her car. They suggested that the currency possibly belonged to her relatives.

Indu Rani later told the police that she saw some Rs.10 notes strewn around the vehicle. She was initially reluctant to venture out of the car. But the second man convinced her that there was more money on the road behind the car.

The police said the moment Indu Rani stepped out of the car; the men yanked open the cars door and stole the two bags inside. Mr. Anil said one of the suspects was a portly man with curly hair. The police have detained one suspect for questioning.

At around 9.30 a.m., Thampi Narayanan of Mavelikara complained to the Cantonment police that some persons had stolen a bag from his car. His vehicle was parked near the government treasury at Statue Junction.

The police said Mr. Thampi and his wife Jayashree Thampi had gone to a nearby bank to transact some private business. Their driver was alone in the car. A Tamil-speaking person approached the driver and said he found some currency notes on the road near the vehicle.

The car driver later told the police that he saw 13 Rs.10 denomination currency notes on the road. He suspected it belonged to his employers. The moment he got out of the car to retrieve the currency, the man decamped with the bag inside the vehicle.

The police said there were some important documents inside the bag but nothing of any monetary value. The theft of bags and purses of car passengers seemed to have become a recurrent crime in the city. The method of operation was the same in most of the cases. Last year, a migrant group of thieves stole the bag of a retired judge near the Secretariat.