Burglars targeting Bay Area desis

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Burglars in Silicon Valley have been targeting desi homes recently, perhaps through property records or personal contacts (thanks, Sonya). If they were truly smart, they’d be looking for the stock options, not yo mama’s mangalasutra:

Of the 50 home burglaries that have occurred in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the last couple of months, 10 have happened in the homes of Indian Americans… [India-West]

Since December, the homes of at least 14 Indo-American families have been burglarized on weekend nights in Silicon Valley. The families fear they are being targeted because of their preference for 22- and 24-karat gold jewelry… “It looks like they know where to look. There are some subcultures in India where it’s pretty common to hide jewelry in the kitchen, and these burglars are also looking in kitchens…”

… they said they wanted to speak out to alert other families — and to tell them to store their jewelry and other valuables in safe-deposit boxes instead of at home. [Mercury News]

5 thoughts on “Burglars targeting Bay Area desis”

  1. Hmmmm, I would say the burglars are targeting affluent residents, instead of desis specifically. Indians already make up a significant portion of the population (>10% ?), and I would venture to guess that they are more affluent than the average Sunnyvale resident. Greater wealth may make a person a more likely burglary target.

    My greatest fear is that the Mercury story will inspire copycat crimes.

    the homes of at least 14 Indo-American families have been burglarized on weekend nights

    If this happened to me, I know my mother would say, “Mone, what were you doing out so late on Saturday night?!”

  3. /Imagines a burglar trying to cash in stolen stock options. Decides it’s a good thing that Manish is apparently not setting out on a career of crime.

    The subculture thing does make one wonder if the chor is a desi. But really, considering how much gold desi women often sport just to go to work, it’s a pretty obvious idea.

  4. Based on just the numbers, it’s hard to conclude about targetting — Sunnyvale has a high concentration of Indians to start with. Random sampling in a sub-neighborhood could easily yield 20% desi households.