Watches worth 1.5 cr stolen from RK Salai shop

The shutter lifters are back in action in Chennai again. In the second such case within two weeks, a RADO exclusive store on Radhakrishnan Salai was broken into and watches worth Rs 1.5 crore have been stolen. 

As per the initial estimates, about 150 watches, all priced in excess of Rs 1 lakh have been stolen from the shop. 

The Royapettah police rushed to the spot after getting information and have extracted 10 fingerprints from the showroom. However, a faulty CCTV recording showed a blurred image of an individual inside the showroom and police said the face of the burglar was not clear. 

Police suspect the hands of more than one person in the heist. Police said burglars broke the lock on one side of the shutter and lifted up that portion to gain entry. The shop owners came to know about the burglary only when they came to open the store on Monday morning. 

Police said the burglary could have happened during midnight or early hours of Monday. Earlier incident A similar case was reported in Adyar on February 16 where burglars gained entry to the shop using same modus operandi and looted watches worth Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50,000 in cash. Police suspect both the cases could have been committed by the same gang. 

Police are trying to verify the fingerprints taken from both the crime scenes and are cross checking them with the ones in the police data bank. During 2002-05, several such cases were reported in Chennai, where the burglars mostly targeted cell phone showrooms. 

Chennai police then arrested a Bihar based shutter lifting gang. Police had found out that this highly organised gang was involved in as many as 27 cases.