Posing as customer, city woman steals jewels from Tiruvallur shops

CHENNAI: A woman who stole jewellery from shops in Tiruvallur by posing as a customer and her husband were arrested on Wednesday. On February 1, a jeweller in Hariharan Bazaar in Ponneri lodged a complaint that 26 grams of gold was stolen from his shop. On the same day, the manager of a shop in Pathivedu in Gummidipoondi lodged a complaint that three sovereigns had gone missing from the store. Police in Ponneri and Gummidipoondi registered separate cases based on these complaints and launched a hunt for the woman using CCTV footage. The police found that the woman in both videos was the same person who posed as customer and stole the jewels when the staff were distracted. She was identified as R Priya of Valasaravakkam, and was arrested along with her husband S Ramachandran. Police seized four sovereigns from the couple. Officials said she has more than 10 theft cases.