Thiruvananthapuram:
As Covid-induced lockdown and restrictions are in force in Keral, burglars have found an ingenious way to commit crimes -- they don PPE kits to dodge police and CCTV cameras. At least four such incidents came to light in Kochi and Thrissur in two weeks, police said.
Such cases have also been reported from Delhi, Maharashtra and Kashmir, crime records show. Usually police don’t check those in PPE kits and robbers are making use of this opportunity.
In Thrissur, robbers in PPE kits took way ₹50,000 cash and food articles from a super market during day time on Wednesday. From a nearby medical store, ₹10,000 cash and medicine were stolen, police said, adding the robberies took place between 2pm and 4pm.
“CCTV visuals show the robbers were boarding a car waiting outside the supermarket after the heist. Since it was lunch time, not many employees were around in the super market. The robbery was noticed two hours after the crime,” a police official said.
In Kochi, a jewellery shop was burgled last week but robbers failed to put their hands on gold after the alarm rang. There was also an attempt to break an ATM in Ernakulam.
After such incidents, police started keeping a tab on ambulances. Robbers in PPE kits could move in ambulances as usually ambulances are not stopped especially when Covid-19 cases are mounting in the state, police said.
{{/usCountry}}After such incidents, police started keeping a tab on ambulances. Robbers in PPE kits could move in ambulances as usually ambulances are not stopped especially when Covid-19 cases are mounting in the state, police said.
{{/usCountry}}According to police, such cases were reported from other states also. In Kashmir, three men wearing PPE kits made off with ₹6 lakh cash and rifle of the guard in a bank in Baramulla in April. Later three suspects were arrested. In January a man clad in PPE kit had stolen gold worth ₹13 crore from a jewellery joint in south Delhi’s Kalkaji.