It was a night of thefts in Kapurthala. Two shops were broken into the area near the railway station in the intervening night of Friday-Saturday and Saturday early morning, thieves broke open the locks of cash boxes lying in a local gurdwara and decamped with the cash.
The thieves
broke open the lock of a junk-tyre store to make a big hole in the back-wall of a mobile accessories shop nearby.
Mohit Anand, the owner of Anand Mobile House, while talking to HT, said, "When I entered the shop after opening the shutter in the morning, the whole place had been turned inside-out. The thieves entered the shop from a hole made in the back-wall and decamped with Rs. 1,000 cash, a 19" LCD monitor, recharge coupons of different company worth Rs. 10,000 and other cell-phone accessories."
He added that their practice of carrying new mobile phones home, limited the damage.
In another attempt, the thieves made a similar hole in the shop of a junk-dealer. Sanjay Sharma, the shop owner, said, "The thieves could not carry any expensive material lying inside the shop, as they were heavy. However, Rs. 3,000 in the cash box has been stolen."
On Saturday morning, Kewal Dass, the chief sewadar of a gurdwara situated in street number 1 of Preet Nagar, reached work, he found locks of cashboxes open and cash missing.
"We open the gates of gurdwara at 5.00 am for the convenience of public. When I returned at 7.30, cash was missing. The loss cannot be assessed as it the donation box and it is impossible to keep count."
The police are investigating the thefts.