Washington desis up in arms against gold thieves

By Arun Kumar, Washington, Nov 1: Indian American residents of a Washington neighbourhood are up in arms against some picky burglars who seem to be targeting their homes for a cool haul of gold and diamond jewellery.

Desis - as people of South Asian origin are referred to in the US -

of Fairfax, a suburb of the national capital in neighbouring Virginia, have approached lawmakers, held town hall meetings and brought together victims of at least 38 burglaries in the last few months to seek concerted action.

Raman Kumar, an IT professional living in Centreville, one of the early victims whose house was burgled way back on Feb 27, recalled that he had gone out for lunch with a friend for just one hour that afternoon.

When the family returned home, they found the bedroom ransacked with precious gold and diamond jewellery gone. Also gone was a gold statute of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, and seven 'mangal sutras'.

"They knew what they were looking for," Kumar told IANS. "They seemed to be mainly interested in 22 karat gold and jewellery and didn't touch artificial jewellery at all."

With eight more burglaries in the last week alone, increasingly angry and frustrated residents led by Kumar have even started an online blog http://fairfaxdesis.posterous.com to draw attention to their plight.

The unsolved crimes mirror a pattern of 93 burglaries in Houston, Texas, 37 in Central Illinois and a few others outside St. Paul, Minnesota.

In an online petition to Virginia Senator Mark Warner with copies among others to President Barack Obama and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, they have sought urgent action to immediately set up a task force to catch the burglars targeting South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern community.

Urging the involvement of FBI in the probe, they said: "As immigrants who made Fairfax a happy home in the last decade, our community is an asset to the county. Since these incidents, we are faced with financial losses, emotional trauma, and feel let down."

An Indian American consultant with IBM, who did not wish to be identified lest it worry people back home in India, found his house in neighbouring Loudon county burgled on Oct 15 after a day out. The burglars seem to have broken in through the back door after disarming his alarm system and cutting telephone wires.

Vindhya Kommineni of Fair Oaks lost her expensive wedding rings and saris besides a sterling dinner set that included gold inlay on Oct 6.

The Komminenis had installed a sophisticated security system after hearing of earlier break-ins. But the thieves still managed to break in through a rear door after disabling the security system with her husband's key fob.

Bud Walker, a spokesman of Fairfax county police, said there was indeed a spurt in burglaries with six thefts in October, two on Oct 6 and four the next day, with some commonality like residents not being at home or having left.

There have been a lot of burglaries since then but he could not say if they were related. Nor would he say whether the victims belonged to a particular community.

He asked the residents to secure their valuables, look out for suspicious behaviour and vulnerable targets, and ask neighbours to cooperate.

Similar advice came from Kraig Traxell, media officer of Loudon county police. He said three incidents, two in the past couple of weeks and one back in June, all seem to be related to the incidents in South Loudon, the neighbouring western end of Fairfax.

"Perhaps they did not know they had crossed Fairfax," he said. In all the three incidents thugs seemed to be looking for somebody with large amounts of gold, cash and laptops and other expensive personal items.

"We don't know how, perhaps the thieves followed them from the market, temple or church."

But Traxell too was unwilling to say if the victims belonged to a particular community.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

--IANS