The noise from a house break-in led the Banashankari police to a thief who had, only a few hours ago, stolen jewellery worth `35 lakh from another house in Padmanabha Nagar.
On Saturday night, between 7 pm and 10 pm, 23-year-old Narasimha Reddy entered the house of BV Kumar by breaking open the terrace door when the family was away and made away with jewellery.
Kumar and his family came to know about the burglary only when they returned home late that night. Police were immediately alerted and even as they were inspecting the crime scene, they heard the sound of another break-in around 3 am.
“This led us to a house on the next street, opposite Kumar’s home,” a police official said.
“Narasimha Reddy had broken the first door in the rear, only to find that it was a toilet. He was in the process of breaking open another door when we caught him,” the official said.
Police recovered the jewellery from Reddy’s car, which was parked a few streets away. After robbing the first home, he had taken a nap in his car and then proceeded to the next home.
“He would drive by in his car and make note of houses that had no lights or were locked and later try to break in,” officials said. “He was thin and wiry and would enter houses by breaking open the back or terrace door in the early hours of the morning,” they added.
Police Commissioner Raghavendra H Auradkar requested people to deposit jewellery in bank lockers and not leave them at home.