Wary of burglaries, traders do not keep cash at counters

Mysore/Mysuru: Learning from past cases, traders at APMC Yard in Bandipalya these days do not keep cash in the counters and this move saved them from huge losses when six shops were burgled last night. Thieves could manage to steal only minimum cash that amounted to over Rs. 25,000. 

The nature of crime was shocking as burglars broke open heavy locks of shops and also pried off the iron shutters with heavy equipment to gain entry. The thefts came to light this morning when traders came to open their shops. 

A maximum of Rs. 10,000 in Rs. 10 denomination was stolen from Srinivasa Commercial Distributors owned by P. Phaneendra. Other shops too reported cash thefts but the amount ranged from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 6,000. They are Sri Ranganatha Distributors, Sri Krishna Distributors, Hanuman Enterprises, Balalakshmi Enterprises and one more shop that was empty. 

All of them are wholesale distributors and the Police said that the burglars looked only for cash and other valuables. They, however, did not touch the goods or soft drinks in any of the shops. The traders are peeved at the alleged inaction by Police despite recurrence of such incidents in the past. It has happened many times, said a trader.

“APMC Yard has been the target of burglars and there have been many instances of traders being robbed while they return home in the night. Though there is a Police Outpost here, this has not deterred the burglars. Even the night beat is not strong here,” he told Star of Mysore. 

“At least the sound of thieves breaking the locks could have been heard by people manning the Outpost or by the night beat Cops. As there were many cases in the past, we do not keep cash anymore in the counters. We keep only minimum cash and from today we will not keep that too. In fact, this has saved us from suffering huge losses,” added another trader. 

Mysore South Police have registered a case and a team of Dog Squad arrived at the place where locks, iron shutters and other places were made to sniff. However, the canines went a little further catching the scent and stopped. The Police have secured the CCTV footage but the visuals are hazy as the incident occurred at night.