27 June,2011 06:28 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Eight family members were present in the house when the 30-year-old cleaned out jewellery worth Rs 4.72 lakh on her first day on the job
IN a daring theft in Kandivli, a domestic help robbed her employers of jewellery worth Rs 4.72 lakh on her very first day on the job and in the presence of eight people in the apartment.
The help took just one hour to clean out a locker in her employer's bedroom while the family members were busy going about their daily chores.
According to the police, Sarita Patel (30) went to the house of Deepak Balchandra Dhar (34), a resident of Vrindavan Cooperative Society in Devnagar, Kandivali (West), on Saturday afternoon and claimed that their previous domestic help, Sharda, had sent her to work for them.
"The Dhar family agreed to let Patel begin working for them as soon as they heard that she was referred to them by Sharda.
She began work that very day," said Assistant Police Inspector Lakshman Shinde of the Kandivli police, who is investigating the case.
Cleaned out
When the Dhars were in the living room, Patel went to their bedroom to sweep the floor.
After an hour, she told Dhar's wife that she wanted to go inform her sister, who worked in the neighboring building, that she had got the job and would return in fifteen minutes.
"After waiting for Patel for an hour, Dhar went into his bedroom only to find that his cupboard had been pried open and ornaments worth Rs 4.72 lakh were missing.
He went to the neighbouring building to find out if any Patel worked there but got an answer in the negative. That was when he approached the police," added Shinde.
The API said that Patel had told the watchman of Dhar's building the same story about her knowing Sharda and had made an entry in the register as Sarita Patel.
"We have registered a case of theft against Patel, but we are quite sure about that not being her real name. There are no CCTV cameras in the building and the Dhar family does not even know Patel's address.
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The society has decided to install CCTV cameras in the premises after the incident," said Shinde.
Previously...
Last week: Govind Naik (26) was arrested for stealing $9,500 (Rs 4.27 lakh approx) and three watches from his employer's flat in Ghatkopar (E)
Last week: A domestic help, Anjali alias Uma and her accomplice Satish, were arrested in Noida. They were headed to Delhi to sell off the jewellery they had stolen from a house in Sector 26. Jewellery and Rs 27,400 in cash was recovered from them.
June 10: Two brothers who worked as domestic help were arrested for allegedly committing theft and ornaments worth over Rs 13 lakh and a large amount of cash was seized from them in New Delhi
May 12: Mahesh Kumar Singla lodged a complaint with the Bhawanipore police station in Kolkata that diamond jewellery u00a0worth Rs 4.5 lakh was missing from his house and so was the domestic help
Safeguards
Some steps you can take to safeguard against theft and robberies by domestic helps:
Make sure you submit your help's photograph and details at the nearest police station
Check if police verification of your help has been done and, if needed, get it done againu00a0u00a0
Make sure your help has good references
Call up the references cited by the help to cross check whether they are authentic
