Serial thief escapes, held after dropping CCTV cam footage

The digital video recorder of a surveillance camera, which a burglar accidentally dropped at a doctor's house he burgled in Kotturpuram, helped police nab him on Saturday. He was arrested after he gave contradictory answers during a vehicle check, to a team formed to nab the suspect found on the CCTV footage. Police recovered a cargo truck that he bought by selling the loot from the Kotturpuram house, and a bike. According to police records, Venkatesan, 42, who has more than 100 cases of burglary against his name in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore and Madurai, had remained elusive for more than two decades except for once in 2008, when he jumped bail. A native of Theni and believed to be a lorry driver by his neighbours, police said that Venkatesan targeted locked houses and often changed his appearance to avoid arrest. "We couldn't trace him for so long as he rarely left evidence, including fingerprints, in the crime scenes."During the vehicle check, the police, noticing his similarity to the suspect they were looking for, asked him why he had tonsured his head, when he confessed to the act and several other burglaries. Venkatesan was remanded in prison. The police have sent his fingerprints to the state crime record bureau (SCRB) to check for his involvement in more burglaries.