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Burglars clad in PPE kits pose fresh challenges for Kerala cops
In Kochi last week, a jewellery shop was burgled but robbers failed to lay their hands on the gold after an alarm rang. There was also an attempt to break into an ATM in Ernakulam. Police said four such cases were reported in Kochi and Thrissur in two weeks. After the incident, police personnel have started keeping a tab on ambulances.
Despite the Covid-19 induced lockdown and restrictions in force in Kerala, burglars are not running short of ideas. They have found an ingenious way to dodge the police and CCTV cameras—a few of them are donning PPE kits and committing the crime. At least four such incidents have been discovered in Kochi and Thrissur in two weeks.
This is not a new phenomenon. Such cases have been earlier reported from Delhi, Maharashtra and Kashmir too, crime records show. Usually cops don’t check those in PPE kits and robbers are making use of this opportunity and they can also dodge CCTV cameras in PPE kits.
In Thrissur the break-in happened during day time on Wednesday. They took ₹50,000 cash and food articles from a supermarket and ₹10,000 cash and medicines were stolen from a nearby medical store, police said adding the robbery took place between 2 and 4 pm.
The CCTV visuals showed that they boarded a car waiting outside the supermarket after the heist. Since it was lunch time not many employees were around in the supermarket. The robbery was noticed two hours after the crime, police said.
In Kochi last week, a jewellery shop was burgled but robbers failed to lay their hands on the gold after an alarm rang. There was also an attempt to break into an ATM in Ernakulam. Police said four such cases were reported in Kochi and Thrissur in two weeks. After the incident, police personnel have started keeping a tab on ambulances. Usually nobody stops ambulances especially when Covid-19 cases are mounting in the state.
According to the police, such cases were reported from other states also. In Kashmir three men in PPE kits decamped with ₹6 lakh cash and the rifle of the guard at a bank in Baramulla in April. Later three suspects were arrested. In January a man clad in a PPE kit had stolen gold worth ₹13 crore from a jewellery shop in south Delhi’s Kalkaji.
