HAL 3rd Stage concerned over break-in attempts

Last week, residents of HAL 3rd Stage posted CCTV footage on X, in which an unidentified man is seen scanning a house in the area past midnight, covering his face occasionally.

In one clip, he walks across a shoe stand next to a door. In the second, he takes the stairs, peers into a window, and then climbs down. The incident, dated October 6, was posted by I Change Indiranagar, a federation of RWAs in and around Indiranagar.

In response, a few X users complained that the police aren’t patrolling frequently enough.

“The man looked around and went away,” Dr Kiran M, president, HAL 3rd Stage Taxpayers and Residents Association, spoke about the recent incident. Such intrusions have risen particularly in the past six months.

Neither are all break-ins successful nor do thieves make away with valuables all the time, a reason why residents don’t file a police case. Mostly, cycles, bikes, and shoes are stolen.

Residents are most worried about strangers lurking around their homes, a majority being independent properties.

“The issue is about feeling unsafe. It is a residential area. Earlier, people knew each other and also the vendors who could come in and go. Now, so many paying guest accommodations and shops have come up and there is no way to monitor the influx,” shares its secretary Minakshi Prabhu.

She shares a break-in instance: “A couple left for a vacation on a Friday. The next morning, a man cut the grill of their house and took away cash and jewellery from their locker. The couple returned in 2-3 days to find their door ajar. Their CCTV camera had been stolen.”

In another case, a man climbed the staircase of a house at 2 am and was snooping through the window. “The resident was working a night shift from home. As soon as he spotted the intruder, the latter fled,” she recalls.

In addition to CCTV cameras, some residents have started subscribing to private security services. “We have elderly living by themselves, and homeowners living abroad,” Dr Kiran reasons.

“We need more public CCTV cameras and also real-time monitoring to map suspicious movements,” he adds.

‘More patrolling’

A senior police official from the east division met the association recently and surveyed corners like the M Vishveshwaraiah Park where “few people make nuisance”.

He says, “Recently, one person entered a house suspiciously, so people are scared. I have asked my staff to do regular patrolling, and urged residents to call 112 in such situations.”

BBMP has installed 300 CCTV cameras in the area. He says they can either shift some of these cameras to relatively more unsafe pockets or request for more cameras.