JOIN USAn elderly man caught two burglars red-handed with the help of CCTV camera footage when they broke into his three-storey house in Lajpat Nagar in south-east Delhi on Tuesday.
Preet Pal Singh, 64, lives on the ground floor of his house in Amar Colony Block E with his wife. His son, Gurmeet, stays on the first floor with his family. Gurmeet and his family were not at home on Tuesday.
Preet said he had installed some CCTV cameras in the building and often monitored them from his bedroom. “Preet was looking at the screen at 2 pm on Tuesday when he saw two unknown men climbing up the stairs towards the first floor,” a senior police official said.
The duo then broke the lock on the first floor door and entered the room, following which Preet raised an alarm and managed to call his wife and neighbours.
Immediately, most of Preet’s neighbours gathered outside his house and went towards the first floor. On hearing the commotion, the burglars came running outside and tried to flee.
“However, the crowd overpowered them. A mobile phone, a handbag, some documents and Rs 1,500 were recovered from them. The accused were also beaten up by residents, though Preet and his wife intervened,” the official said.
The burglars were handed over to police. They have been identified as Akbar, a resident of Khanna Nagar in Ghaziabad, and Bunty of Harsh Vihar in north-east Delhi.
Police found that the lock on the main door was broken. Some cupboards in separate rooms were ransacked and household items were scattered all over the bedroom. House-breaking tools were recovered from a bag in the drawing room.
A case of house-breaking and theft has been filed against the accused with Amar Colony police station.