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Keep windows open at your own risk, tell police
View(s):Police have cautioned the public to be aware of thieves who may enter houses from windows kept open at nights due to the excessive heat experienced these days.
The warning came after a thief entered a Cinnamon Gardens residence through a window kept open at night and removed antique jewellery to the value of more than one million rupees, last week.
A Cinnamon Gardens police officer said the lady owner of the house was asleep when the thief entered the house through the window and stole the jewellery.
‘The owner had heard a sound and switched on the light, but the thief had escaped. She had called the 119 police emergency service which had responded’, he said.
On the following day police sniffer dogs had been used, but police had not been able to detect the robber. No arrests had been made until Friday.
‘People need to be vigilant as thieves can capitalise on the current situation where people are forced to keep the windows open due to the excessive heat,’ he said.
He said in this instance the owner had been living by herself in a large house. In such cases additional precautions such as getting someone else to stay in one’s house may be useful.
In a similar case a 55-year-old woman living on her own in a house in Katuwana, Homagama was killed by suspected thieves.
A senior police officer said that the woman had been living with her mother, but her mother had passed away a month back and since then had been living on her own.
‘The woman had been suffocated with her own pillow and killed by the suspected thieves, ’ he said.
Police believe that the prime motive was robbery as all the almirahs had been ransacked, but they are yet to determine the items which may have been removed.
The body was recovered on April 8 and sniffer dogs were used, but no trace of the murder suspect or suspects has been found.