Watchman foils theft bid at garment store

Ludhiana: A watchman foiled a theft attempt at a garment store in Haibowal in the early hours of Saturday. Three miscreants had managed to break two locks of the garment store. When the accused were trying to break open the central locking system, the watchman reached there and raised an alarm. Police said when burglars tried to overpower him, the watchman attacked them with a stick, following which they fled. The incident was captured in the CCTV installed outside the garment store. The owner of Shree Shyam Vatika readymade garment store, Satpal Bansal, came to know about the incident when he reached the store in the morning.
Bansal said when he reached the shop on Saturday morning, he found an iron rod and two locks near the shutter. He opened the shop and scanned the CCTV, and came to know that around 2.30am, three masked burglars tried to burgle the shop. The accused also tried to break open the third shutter, but he had to escape from there when the watchman Simarjit Singh reached the spot. Bansal added that the accused also tried to overpower the watchman, but the latter fought back and attacked the accused with a stick, following which the accused escaped from there. The watchman added that after he had foiled the attempt, he had called up the shop-owner who had rushed to the store.
Bansal added that in the early hours of Friday, two burglars executed a theft at a neighbouring medical store, and decamped with Rs15,000 in cash from the pharmacy. Despite that incident, the miscreants had dared to execute another theft, and there was still no security check by the police. ASI Malkit Singh, in-charge at Jagatpuri police post, said the shop-owner’s statement was being recorded to lodge an FIR. He added that PCR patrolling was there in the area, but the accused had observed the timings, and struck at the shop after the patrolling.