Madurai: A burglar looted goods worth Rs 65,000 and took away Rs 5,000 in cash from a supermarket in Chennai's Usilampatti. However, the thief left behind a letter seeking apology from the owner of the shop and citing his reason for the crime.
Apologising to the owner, the thief wrote that he was hungry and hence resorted to stealing. "You lost only one day's revenue, but this is equivalent to my three month's revenue. Once again, my apologies," The New Indian Express quoted his letter.
The shop is owned by 30-years-old M Ramprakash and is situated on Usilampatti-Madurai Road in Tamil Nadu. Ramprakash opened his shop on Thursday morning and found that two computers, a television, and Rs 5,000 were missing from his shop.
People have registered the case and CCTV footage has been taken for probe. Fingerprint experts have also been brought in to help in the investigation.
Writing an apology after breaking into homes and shops with the intention to loot isn't new. Earlier in February, a thief in Keral's Ernakulam had stolen from five shops and when he hit the sixth place, he had a change of heart, It was the house of an former Indian soldier. The thief left a note on the wall in Malayalam, drank alcohol from the soldier's bar and left without stealing anything.
In 2018, a thief had stolen a university student's laptop, but had apparently felt regretful about his act. In repentance, he wrote an apology mail to the student.
Steve Valentine, a Birmingham resident, recently took to Twitter to reveal how his flatmate received an email from the apparent thief who had stolen the laptop that contained his university course work.
Aplogosing for the theft, the unnamed thief confesses that poverty forced him to steal the student's laptop in an email. "im sorry about your laptop," reads the subject line.
The thief 'makes up' for stealing the laptop by sparing his phone and wallet.
"hello i am very very sorry for taking your laptop. i am extremely poor and needed the money. i left your phone and wallet so i hope that slightly makes up for something.[sic]"
Realising that the laptop belonged to a university student, the considerate thief also makes a tempting offer to the student.
"i can see you are a university student. if there is any files such as university work on here that you need, let me know and i will send them to you here.[sic]"