TUMAKURU: A jewellery shop in Karnataka’s Tumakuru got an unlikely “thief” this week after CCTV footage revealed that a rat was behind the disappearance of gold rings and chains.The unusual incident has since drawn attention online after the shop owner shared how the missing ornaments were eventually traced to the rodent’s hideout.The incident came to light when employees at the jewellery store found that 10 gold rings and two chains were missing during a routine stock check.Suspecting theft, the staff carefully reviewed the CCTV footage but initially found no suspicious activity.According to shop owner Vishwas, the mystery deepened as there was no evidence suggesting that any customer had taken the ornaments.“Everyone started wondering whether a customer had taken them, but there was no evidence of that either. We couldn’t understand how this had happened,” he said.The breakthrough came when the staff realised that several price tags attached to the jewellery had also gone missing.“We thought that if it was a thief, they wouldn’t take the tags; they would only take the jewellery. So we decided to search again,” he said.On reviewing footage recorded around 4.30 am, employees spotted a rat carrying away one of the gold rings.“That’s when we realised it was the rat’s doing. It had made a hole in one place and created a path from there to another area. Along that route, we found the chains and rings that had fallen. We recovered all the missing jewellery from that area,” he added.The bizarre CCTV footage has since gone viral, leaving social media users amused by the unlikely “jewel thief.”(With PTI inputs)
