Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi

Udupi, Sep 5: Two persons hailing from Rajasthan who had booked a room in one of the lodges at Udupi, looted the lodge by intoxicating the staff and then fled from the spot.

The thieves who were speaking in Hindi came to the lodge on August 17. Whenever they were free, they used to chat with other people and befriend them.

It is said that on August 21 at around 11.15 pm, one of them offered a laddu laced with sedative to a room boy. After the room boy fell unconscious, they looted cash from the drawer and fled from the spot, it is learnt.

As per the information obtained, one of the thieves had distributed laddu to the lodge staff stating that his son had got a job. Officials who ate the sweets fell unconscious soon. The thieves then took the locker key from the receptionist's pocket and took away cash.

The theft came to light when the staff woke up in the morning. They soon went to doctor for checkup, where the doctor confirmed that they had been intoxicated.

The two thieves who took pains to get their plan in action in the hope of amassing a huge amount of money, were left disappointed, as they could only take away Rs 2,000 which was in the drawer.

During the theft, the lodge lights were dim and before taking the money, the thieves had covered the CCTV camera with a cloth. But as they had stayed in the lodge for 5 days, all the earlier footage has been recorded, said the lodge owner.

As the theft amount was small, the complaint was not filed with police. "If the police want to investigate the incident, I am ready to give the camera footage," said the owner.