Minutes after break-in, burglar hitch hikes with house owner, arrested

CHENNAI: Lady luck was not on the side of a burglar who broke into a locked house in Avadi and then sought a hike from the owner of the house from where he stole the valuables and got caught.

The occupants of the house had left the house only to buy meat from a nearby stall and returned within an hour and found the house broke open. When the house owner came out and went on his bike, he ran into the robber itself, police sources said.

The house owner, Jenin Raja Doss (34) of Patchaiamman Koil Street in Veerapuram, Morai near Avadi is a technician at an automobile manufacturing firm in Sriperumbudur.

On Monday, around 1 pm, he and his wife, Vidhya left home to buy meat from a nearby stall.

When they returned home, they found the front door broke open and on searching the almirah, they found four sovereign gold jewellery and other articles missing.

Jenin immediately took his bike to file a complaint with the police when he bumped into the suspect, who sought a hike from him. As he was a stranger in the neighbourhood and Jenin noted him having a bunch of keys with him, he raised an alarm.

The public gathered in the area and during the enquiry, they found he had stolen from Jenin’s house.

He was treated to mob justice and handed over to the Avadi Tank factory police. Police identified the suspect as Umar, 44 of Perumal Naicken street in Periya Kanchi.

Police investigations revealed that he used to moonlight as a cotton candy seller and take note of locked houses and burgle them.

Police said that Umar was earlier arrested for a house break-in in 2019. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in custody.