CHENNAI: Police on Monday arrested a man who confessed to stealing 52 sovereigns of gold jewellery worth about Rs 18 lakh and Rs 1.90 lakh from his landlord’s house at Kallikuppam in Ambattur after opening the cupboard with a duplicate key prepared using molten aluminium with ‘lessons’ from YouTube.
On Sunday, Balaji of 7th Street, Muthamil Nagar, Kallikuppam, lodged a police complaint saying his wife and returned from Dakshin Chithra on ECR to find the cupboard open and the gold jewellery and cash missing.
The 45-year-old said he had kept the key above the door and that none knew of it. Police questioned all tenants before the needle of suspicion fell on Chandra Sudan who lived on the second floor. The 32-year-old electrician didn’t have a regular job and was mostly at home.
During questioning, he said he saw the landlord place the key in the ‘safe’ spot and picked it up on February 3. Chandrusudan took the imprint of the key in a patch of kneaded wheat flour and returned the original to its spot. He later poured molten aluminium — he knew the metal’s melting point was low enough for the process to be done with a hand-held lighter — on the imprint and left it for 15 minutes to solidify.
He then waited for Balaji and his wife to go out and committed the offence. A court later sent him to jail.
