Chennai: Hours after a handbag containing 20 sovereign gold and Rs 1 lakh worth foreign currency, was reported stolen from a woman air passenger who arrived here from Bahrain on Wednesday, she received a call from a man from Tiruvannamalai saying the bag was with him. The incident occurred when she was waiting near the conveyor belt for her luggage.
R. Narayanammal, 50, of Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, had placed her handbag in a trolley and went to pick up her luggage when somebody took away her bag, the police said. The caller, V. Murugan, who had also travelled with her in the same flight told her that he found the extra bag with him on Wednesday evening and called the phone number found on a piece of paper.
Perhaps, this is the first instance in recent times of one getting back valuables one had lost at Chennai airport. Murugan, a construction worker, had to make a few calls to her as both were finding it difficult to communicate with each other due to the language barrier. She knew only Telugu while he could speak only Tamil.
When Murugan was calling repeatedly, Narayanammal, gave the phone to the policeman to speak. Murugan then explained things to the cops who asked him to come back and return the bag immediately. He rushed back to the airport with two of his friends and handed over the bag to the woman, much to her relief. The woman collapsed in the airport when her handbag went missing. “It looks like she placed her bag on the trolley used by Murugan by mistake,” the police said.
