GOALPARA, March 30 � Instances of petty thefts which are seldom reported have been occurring with alarming regularity in the town, besides a few cases of chain snatching that occurred in the evening hours and burglars breaking into houses in some isolated areas, where owners leave their houses locked for many days right under the watchful eyes of the police.
But, interestingly these unidentified persons are getting bolder day by day and are usually targeting houses usually around 8 pm for committing thefts of petty articles like plastic chairs and accessories adorning the front porches where family members at that time are either living serenely or watching TV or doing household chores like cooking or tutoring their children and of late they are concentrating their activities and are targeting houses in and around the neighbourhoods of new Goalpara town areas.
As the number of incidents of thefts of petty items from houses is rising in the town, people keep on thinking of ways to keep their houses safe from thieves and some are even adopting desperate measures like locking their front gates and bolting their doors and windows early in the evening and making their homes a virtual prison. Even a member of a family who found plastic furnitures stolen from his house and who declined to be identified told this correspondent that considering the price of these stolen items he dismissed it as a mischievous act, he was reluctant to report the matter to the police.
Even though the official status of the number of cases of petty thefts is not known, but talking to this correspondent, a few conscious citizens from in and around the town opined that though the police has been doing their best but they still find that the extent of police vigilance has to be stepped up and also mentioned that the police need to do more to check gatherings usually belonging to the younger age groups at some isolated places for suspected anti- social activities.