Hyderabad: Hostels and bachelor accommodations have become easy targets for thieves, whose earlier stay in the hostel helps them to loot valuables and electronic gadgets of inmates.
Nitturi Snehith Raj from Peddapalli district, who was arrested recently, was working as a laptop technician and was staying in a private hostel in the city. Snehith Raj is currently cooling his feet in the jail.
During his stay in the hostel, he observed how inmates locked their rooms and kept the key near doors and shoe racks. He used to steal gadgets and valuables from hostels.
In the recent past, hostels and rented rooms in the city have become an easy target. Taking advantage of their earlier stay in hostels, thieves enter the locked rooms and decamp valuables, said the police.
“Since they had stayed in the hostel, the guards do not suspect them. Others enter the hostel under the pretext of meeting a friend or getting admission in the hostel,” a senior police official said.
A majority of the hosteliers are students and professionals. For the convenience of their roommates and friends, they leave the key near the room.
“In some cases, the inmates sleep leaving the doors open. This is dangerous,” another official added.
Hostels have also become a safe haven for anti-social elements. Two years ago, Shiva Kumar Reddy, who robbed a woman at gunpoint at an ATM in SR Nagar, took shelter in a private hostel from where he was arrested.
