House Breaks in sedate Chennai

Double House Breaks  in a prestigious Chennai colony

 

The peace of this sleepy colony was broken by a large posse of police vans and policemen all over the place . The early morning walkers were surprised . Eventually the residents were shocked to hear that two houses were burgled- a place where no houses had been broken.

 

Moopanr thottam thozhilalar sangam- MTTS- was formed a group of migrants to chennai to help newcomers to settle down and get jobs. In fact it was a group small thieves who had no other skill. Many of them got educated but their profession was unchanged. It gave them an immensive satisfaction to challenge the police authorities .

 

The colony had  houses,flats and offices with watchmen.  Street venders were common and one the most popular was the man who sold hot sweet tea early in the morning. He was very popular with the watchmen for his tea and early mornings chats when information was exchanged- a boon for the watchmen who had nobody to talk to all day and night. The tea men get changing often but new one always came.

 

The thalaivar was an all power figure, the brain and strategist behind the operation. The gains were transferred to a jewelry shop by untraceable methods and converted to usable money. Burglary in the city had not been very remunerable , as security,police and public were very tight and the city dwellers left very little in their house in the form of jewellery- the conversion of which was their specialty. So they specialised on the expanding outskirts of the city where the pickings were for the asking. Training of thieves formed a very integral part of MTTS and was the brainchild of the thalaivar. Advance information gathering was s essential both for the thieves and police. Thalaivar strategy of tea men was superb information gathering method which he used for training new recruits to conduct house brakes of vulnerable places in high end parts of the city. If trainees passed the test then were perfect for outskirts.

 

The tea man had passed information to thalaivar about two houses for the picking in adjacent streets,coincidentally numbered 12. One was occupied only by the owner,the family away. The other was occupied by an old couple- had the reputation of a very confusing house . Now this was built by a by an architect with novel ideas, with all sorts of angles ,confusing you and making sounds coming from unexpected places when you spoke.

 

Thalaivar decided to test his new trainee on one of these houses. Strict instructions- no injury to the occupants- and no theft except for the mobiles. The mobiles could give him a lot of contacts . If the trainee passed the test he would be good for anything.

 

The night was an usual quite uneventful one still recovering from the aftermath of floods. Early , Mookonguvelan the trainee,(MKV)-For short, made his way, got his bearing and managed to jump from neighbouring balcony into the target house, enter the empty office adjoining the bedroom ransack all cupboards and strew things around. He pocketed the mobile. wiped everything clean and rearranged  a porcelain figurine of ‘Speak no evil,hear no evil.see no evil in a prominent place on the table. The owner  got up hearing something but MKV was gone.

 

While owner was investigating MKV got away ,and was about leave the colony when he came across another 12 house in the adjacent street. Had he made a mistake and spoiled the good work he had done? Not to take a chance he decided to enter this house also as there was time but to make quick job. He tried the back door from an empty house at the back and when it didn't work ,came to the front door, jammed the lock and opened the door. He stepped to see a big room on the right and a small one one the left ,full of artifacts but nothing of interest to him. He made his way up thru the narrow staircase into the living space with two bedrooms. He entered the first one ransacked the cupboard and strewed everything around without taking anything. MKV then entered the the second bedroom, where two ancient couple were snoring away in tandem He opened the cupboards ,strew things around, went to the table near the old man .Lovely watches. an open table drawer with a wallet visible was there for the picking. He was sorely tempted to take it for the credit cards when there was big sound Like a Big Bertha of Word War 1 firing, the old lady snoring. He just was getting over it when there was an explosion from the the old man passing wind. This was a pastime the old man played with his Grandson Rubiroso as a game and he had perfected the technique and was as good as Rohan. The sound was so loud that even the old lady turned round moaning.  MKV was shocked and beat a quick retreat, picked the mobile from the sofa and made a quick exit. MKV made a quick get away from the colony . Inspecting the mobiles after get away he was disgusted to find that the mobile phone from the first house was a camera. The second one was a mobile and opening the contacts, he saw a lovely name Aditi and could not resist the temptation to call. The call went thru to Zurich and when he heard english voices he switched off the phone. ‘That was a stupid thing to do.If Thalaivar ever finds out I am done, -thought MKV.

 

Next morning was a mayhem with police all over the two burgled houses .They had responded with alacrity to the call .The situation of the colony next to VIP ministers houses and high profile residents helped. The publicity of house breaks in this area was bad publicity for the police. They investigated thoroughly and result was negative. The security was stepped in the area with additional patrols. The inspector in charge was annoyed and mystified with thieves having scored over the police in a very high security area.

 

The old couple, after an initial period of shock were back to normal.There were reassured by the police  of extra patrolling and personal contacts. More than anything their hackneyed arguments on the same subjects was replaced by the present one- ‘who done it?’. The lady kept up the pressure on the Inspector by frequent pep talks and questions on the progress of the investigation.

 

Thalaivar got a first hand report from MKV and was pleased. He had a gem on his hands. His men were always replaced after a time with fresh recruits and he had a gem on his hands.  Few days later the tea man was again on his rounds  and Thalaivar was informed that everything was settling down.

 

The Inspector could not take head or tail of the affair till he heard of another house break in a different part of the city which was very similar ,only the mobile being stolen. Was it a case of trying to collect information from the phone before it was wiped off? He passed on his idea to his bosses but got no where. These house brakes were always on his mind till a murder in a tenement on the canal bank took his full attention.

 

Raja Ramakrishnan

Chennai

Feb 28  2016

Comments

[Ness Pesikaka]

I have your number!

Thalaivar.

[Raji]

//The other was occupied by an old couple- had the reputation of a very confusing house . Now this was built by a by an architect with novel ideas, with all sorts of angles ,confusing you and making sounds coming from unexpected places when you spoke. //
This made me laugh.

Very interesting read.

[Raji]

But it is no laughing matter. Though written lightheartedly, this shows how unsafe we are. This man has entered the room where the couple is sleeping, and messed around before stealing their phone. It is fortunate that nothing happened to them.

[Kamini]

Very nice read, Appa, although my heart stops every time I think about
the burglar prowling through your room while you were both sleeping there.

Ha ha Ness, go get him!!