COVID-19 India: Burglars wearing PPE kits break into a jewellery store in Maharashtra, walk away with 780gm gold

Dubai: The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have made things easy for burglars and thieves. This week, a group of burglars wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits broke into a jewellery store in the Indian state of Maharashtra, and walked away with 780gm gold. Twitter users in the country are sharing reports about the incident, asking, “Who would have thought it would become acceptable to walk into a bank, or a jewellery store with a mask on?”

CCTV footage of the incident that went viral, shows the burglars wearing caps, masks, plastic jackets and hand-gloves, taking gold jewellery from showcases and cupboards in the shop, located in Phaltan area of Maharashtra.

The incident reportedly happened earlier this week, during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in parts of the state.

According to local news reports, a case has been registered at the Phaltan police station after a complaint by the jewellery shop owner, police said. The shop owner said the burglars broke in through the shop wall.

Twitter users @SKNataraj1: “PPEs come in handy for burglaries too.”

And, Facebook user Meenakshi Gupta shared the story with the caption: “What a perfect disguise, won’t leave any evidence and it must have made it difficult for the CCTV cameras to catch their faces. COVID-19 has made it legal for people to walk into banks with masks on, who would have expected?”