Till two years back, fake door-to-door salesmen were common and many cases were reported between 2005 and 2009 wherein a ‘salesman’ would knock on a door pretending to sell the products and peep inside the targeted house and then report back on how and when it could best be burgled. Other gangs use members who pretend to be vagrants or labourers working in the vicinity of the targeted house. A police officer said that these burglars used to case the joint, as it were, sometimes also assign their wives or female accomplices to do a recce of the houses while they spent the entire day in open places or fields and strike the targeted place during the night.
“During the day, their ‘wives’ go around with photographs of Gods door-to-door asking for money or seeking alms with the lament that their native place is drought-stricken or suffering due to some other natural calamity and they are jobless,” said a senior police officer. The information collected about their “target” then is passed on to the gang.
