Daring robbery at South Mumbai's Oberoi, Trident hotels

The police are on the hunt for a trio of burglars who stole luxury watches worth Rs 36 lakh from the Oberoi and Trident hotels but thanks to poor CCTV footage from the hotel there are still no clues in sight While the cops have been unable to identify the culprits from the blurry videos they suspect the wellplanned heist was carried out by foreign nationalsLuxury items on display at the TridentOberoi passage yesterday near the spot from where the watches were stolen PicBipin KokateThe incident took place on the night of September 30 in the corridor that connects the Trident and Oberoi hotels at Nariman Point Six watches that were kept in a glass display along the corridor were stolen by three visitors including a woman20minute jobAccording to the police the trio reached the spot at 1030 pm and walked out with the expensive booty within 20 minutes ldquoThe accused had planned the heist in a very organised manner The woman kept watch at one entrance of the corridor on the Trident hotel side while one of the men stood watch near the Oberoi side All three of them were in formals the man in the blazer stole the watches The heist was executed in 15 to 20 minutesrdquo said a police officer from the Marine Drive police stationAlso Read 11 burglars pull off daring Rs 135 lakh heistCCTV captured this indistinct image of the thief who was dressed in a blazerThe cops have alleged that security measures were less than satisfactory Not only was the corridor unmanned by security personnel there was a simple lock on the glass display which the burglars had no trouble breaking openCCTV images are blurry but show the three suspects at the hotel corridor while the woman left was on lookout duty at the Trident side of the corridor one of the men kept watch on the Oberoi side Meanwhile the man in the blazer stole the watchesldquoWatches were kept inside a display made of glass The lock on the display was hardly worth R300 even though the watches kept inside were worth several lakhs The accused easily managed to break open the lock and removed six watches from the display Three of them were Rolex watches while three were from Panerai The six watches are valued over R36 lakh in allrdquo the officer addedRead Story Daring heist at closed Mumbai store by six women caught on camera As there were no guards to watch the display staff members only discovered the theft the next day when the FIR was lodged The police began their probe only to find that the CCTV images were too hazy to identify the crooksSecurity concernldquoIt is a major security concern especially because during the horrific 2611 attacks terrorists had entered this very hotelrdquo said a cop from the Marine Drive police station adding ldquoThe CCTV footage is extremely poor which is causing major difficulties in identifying the three accused We have sent the pictures to all the hotels and lodges in south Mumbai However they have all responded saying the pictures are too blurry We are trying every thing possible to get a lead in the caserdquoWhen midday tried to contact Oberoi Hotels and Resorts the executive assistant manager Kamal Kaur refused to comment on the matter while public relations officer Pallavi Singh did not respond to messages or calls However when midday visited the spot yesterday there were two guards manning the area and the display and its lock had been taped up