BA Block witnessed a spate of petty thefts last week that left residents both angry and sweating in this sweltering heat. Thieves targeted at least four houses and stole — not cash or jewels but — air conditioner pipes, rendering the cooling machines useless.
The thefts were discovered at about 4am on April 21. “My wife and son were woken from sleep that night when the AC suddenly started making a racket,” said Subhajit Bhattacharjee of BA 89. He himself was away on night duty. “They looked outside the window and saw someone standing on the parapet outside doing something to our AC.”
The scared mother and son rang up Saibal Mitra of BA 58, who lives opposite their house, for help. The Mitras came out to their balcony and saw a boy — no older than 14 — jump off the Bhattacharjee’s wall and flee. “We raised an alarm but at 4am there was no one on the streets to give chase,” says Mitra.
Soon neighbours gathered on the street outside and realised several of them had been robbed. “We found a sack outside my gate with AC pipes, that the thieves had broken from outside the homes. We believe they wanted to sell the copper in the wires within but when we raised an alarm, they had to flee without their loot,” said Mitra, from whose house two pipes were missing and a third damaged. “BA 89 and 59 had pipes broken off from an AC each and BA 50 had four AC pipes and two cycles stolen.”
The residents saw two boys speed off on a cycle around the time and one boy, aged about 12 years of age, was caught lingering in the lane. He was handed over to the police. But that’s not all. On April 24, a group of four boys was again seen trying to cut pipes at BA 45.
Meanwhile, not only were the repairs expensive — Mitra had to spend Rs 16,100 to fix his ACs — but in some cases the repairs took time too. “We had to spend the next day and night without AC and it was torturous in this heat,” said Bhattacharjee.
BA Block president Arunava Das said petty theft had dwindled in the neighbourhood till these pipe thefts resurfaced. “There was another attempt made on a house the following Sunday too,” he said. “Our block had earlier this year installed eight CCTV cameras around the community hall but they do not cover the targeted houses. This only means we have to expedite the next phase of our CCTV installation.”
The adjacent AA Block also witnessed two AC pipe thefts about a month ago, again apparently by children. “Our night guards spotted some kids in the act and gave chase but they got away. We are now trying to increase the strength of our guards,” said AA Block secretary Partha Chakrabarty, adding that a fortnight ago he himself saw two kids trying to cut the wires out of an electric box on the road divider between AA and BA blocks.
“I confronted them about the vandalism and they said they wanted to sell the copper in the wires to buy food and drugs. I was shocked. One of the boys was aged about 13 and the other was no more than eight or nine. I bought them some food and tried to counsel them but this is a deep-rooted socio-economic problem,” said Chakrabarty.
From BA Block, president Das and secretary Prasenjit Saha approached the police with a formal complaint about the issue earlier this week. “Our block is on the fringes of the township and hence exposed to outsiders who come in easily. We need tighter security from the police,” said Saha.
The police, however, say they are only aware of a single instance of pipe theft, in which the minor accused was handed over to them on April 21. “That child has been sent to a home,” said an officer of the Bidhannagar north police station. “AC wires stay exposed outside the house and hence the thieves must have thought it an easy target. But we have no knowledge of more such thefts. Perhaps people consider the loss of a pipe too small a deal to report to the police but they must inform us.”
The officer said they had been urging block committees to install CCTVs in their lanes while they themselves step up jeep and bike patrolling.
