Tirunelveli: Residents of VM Chatram and Arokya Nagar in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli city are finding strange patterns drawn with oil on the gates of their houses. Suspecting foul play panicky residents approached police.
Much to their distress they were told that the symbols found in houses allegedly indicate the nature of people in the house among other things.
According to the police, the symbols were found in six houses in the area. These signals are used by thieves to indicate the nature of people in the house. They denote if there was anything valuable to be stolen and if it was safe to conduct a burglary in the marked house.
The News Minute quoted Deputy Superintendent of Police Saravanan as saying that they initially suspected that the marks could be left by local security guards to mark houses that were yet to pay them. But this angle was soon dismissed as there were no security guards.
The population in the area is very low and several houses remain empty as people visit the houses only on the weekends. So police suspect that it could be the work of thieves. After doing some research they found that these marks were being used by thieves to set their targets for burglaries and crimes. They also did not rule out the possibility of the work done by criminals.
Police advised the residents to install CCTV cameras in their properties to allow monitoring of people coming and going into the locality. Patrolling has been intensified in the area during the nights. Local officials have been asked to remain alert in view of possible dangers.