Hungry rats 'help' Mumbai cops recover bag with 10 grams of gold from gutter

MUMBAI: Police here have managed to recover a missing bag containing gold jewellery from a rat hole. The four-legged thieves who 'stole' it were probably more interested in vada pav, Mumbai's favourite snack, than the shiny metal.

Sundari Planibel, a resident of suburban Dindoshi, approached police on June 13 saying that she had lost ten 'tolas' (1 tola = 10 grams) of gold jewellery, an official said.

Planibel, who works as a domestic help, told police that her employer gave her two vada pavs when she left for home on Monday evening.

She had some jewellery at home which she wanted to deposit in a bank. On reaching home, she picked up the jewellery, put it in the same polythene bag in which she was carrying the vada pavs, and left for the bank.

Thinking that she would not be able to eat the vada pavs at the bank, she gave away the bag containing the snack --- and the jewellery --- to two teenage boys she met on the way, she told police.

On reaching the bank, she realized her blunder. Frantic, she approached the police, who tracked down the two boys. However, the boys said that they had dumped the bag in a dustbin as the vada pavs appeared stale. But the bag was nowhere to be found, the police official said.

Police then scanned the CCTV footage in the area, which showed the boys dumping the bag in the dustbin. Sometime later, they saw the bag beginning to move mysteriously. Police surmised that rats from the nearby gutter must have caught hold of it as they would have been attracted by the smell of the vada pavs, and later dragged the bag away.

On June 12, police scoured all through the gutter and eventually found the bag. The jewellery was inside but the vada pavs were missing, the official said. The jewellery was returned to the woman, he added.