Ranchi, Jun 14 (IANS): People staying on the outskirts of Ranchi are living in fear of theft at their houses. Some residents have even put up notices on their houses saying "theft has already taken place in this house. Do not waste your effort". Such notices have been put up in the Pundag locality of Ranchi at over five houses.

The residents who have put up the notices say, "Police efforts to stop theft have gone in vain. We lodged a complaint with the police but it failed to bring the desired results in the area."

"A theft took place twice in a month in my house. The thieves took away jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh during the second theft," said Rekha Devi, a resident of Bhagwati Nagar in Pundag locality of Ranchi.

Manoj Kumar, another resident of Bhagwati Nagar, said, "On Saturday my family had gone to our in-laws house. We stayed there at night. On Sunday morning our neighbours informed us about a theft in our house. We reached home and found that the thieves had decamped with Rs two lakh cash and jewellery worth Rs one lakh."

Thefts took place in more than six houses at Bhagwati Nagar on Saturday and the thieves took away jewellery worth more than Rs eight lakh.

"Our house has been burgled twice. We have been forced to write slogans to ward off thieves as nothing is left in our house," said Sanjeev Khanna, another resident of Bhagwati Nagar.