What on earth is this all about?

Digital Drifter

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/23/stor...2312100300.htm

CHENNAI, MARCH 22. The City Police Commissioner, R. Nataraj, has announced a cash reward for the police team which manages to solve the `bureau pulling' cases in Madipakkam sub-division in the last few months.

[...]

Is someone stealing cupboard/shelf drawers or stealing funds from different departments? what?

Nick-H

This is just a new way of snarling up chennai traffic

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

indiamike

My bet is that it means 'missing undergarments' and someone is doing some good old fashion 'panty raids'

.....arnold layne, had a strange hobby...........

crvlvr

some more details here, but it may only add to the confusion.

Nick-H

Perhaps this whole thing, and definately this article should be posted to Curious quirks of Indian English thread?

soulfood

It's about entire cupboards or racks being stolen (instead of the valuables stored). Here's the explanation

indiamike

ahh...I see....someone obviously has a 'drawer fetish'

abracax

Not as bad as almira yanking, I'm sure.

__________________
He travels fastest who pays for a cab.

crvlvr

some of these bureaus must be really tough to break into, so they have chosen to take it in whole. A few years ago, the car alarms here became quite burglar proof, so the car theifs resorted to towing the car away, insted of trying to break into it and drive off.

rangss

Funny thread...had me laughing all the way...that was a nice one IndiaMike...good old fashion 'panty raids'... HAHAHAHAHAHA!

But then, I was a victim of this kind of robbery...someone broke into my house and dragged away the steel 'bureau'/almirah/cupboard out of the house. When I returned next morning, I found it a good 500 mts away from my house!!!

Someone tried to yank the locked doors open...could not do it ...they tried to bend the steel door using a crowbar probablly, so that they may insert their hand and grab allthe loot they could...no way... the door refused to bend beyond a point. Ultimately, they dumped it on the street-side and made off. it took the blacksmith more than an hour to re-set the little bend those crooks made. Thank fully I lost nothing!...Well there wasn't anything more than some old clothes and some unimportant papers in it.

__________________
...and I took the road less travelled.

Nick-H

Excellent story, Rangss. Even better that it had a happy outcome

Digital Drifter

I still don't get it, why would anyone want to collect cupboard drawers?

http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/02/stor...0213630300.htm
`Bureau puller' at it again

By Our Staff Reporter



TAMBARAM, APRIL 1. After a two-month lull, the "bureau puller" has struck.

This time in Union Carbide Colony at Madipakkam. However, instead of taking away valuables, he relieved a woman, sleeping in the house, of her chain.
[...]

soulfood

Arey baba, because he cannot unlock the cupboard to steal the valuables inside. Read Rangss experience above. Maybe that thief never learnt to pick a lock.

Trying to yank the locked doors open or to bend the steel door with a crowbar would make a lot of noise. You can't do it when the owner is sleeping in the next room. And maybe the thief isn't bold enough to make it into a full fledged robbery. So he does the next best thing. He take off with the cupboard so he can open it at a safe place.

rangss

Quite true, Soulfood. My experience wasn't in Chennai, but in Vizag, where I lived in the outskirts of the city. The reported robberies have the same story. the robberies have taken place in the quiet suburbs, where there are too many vacant places. The gang drags the almirah to such places so that there is no one to hear the noise.