The woman, Shanmughasundaravalli, had left for her daughter’s house in Anna Nagar on Sunday evening. On Tuesday morning, the suspect, ‘Psycho’ Murali, broke into the house. What the thief did not realise was that the security system at the house detected his presence and sent an alert to the woman’s son, Anil Murugan, who is based in Ireland, said Maduravoyal inspector S Muthuramalingam.

Arul immediately contacted the police to alert them about the presence of an intruder in his house located on I street in Moorthy Nagar. “He had to convince the officials at the station to rush immediately. A police team was sent to the address from where the cops managed to nab the intruder, who turned out to be a wanted suspect in some property offences in the jurisdiction of nearby police station,” sources said.

“Our patrol team caught Mural when he was coming out of the house. There was only a laptop in the house, but the suspect could not take it because the police team reached there on time,” said an official.

“We found that he was involved in two or three other crimes in our jurisdiction. Tirumangalam police have been looking for him in connection with a crime, based on a CCTV footage,” said Anna Nagar Deputy Commissioner G Jawahar.

“Murali is wanted in a case under our police station. We are remanding him,” added Tirumangalam inspector G Latha Maheshwari.