Thieves broke into four flats in an apartment block in Patuli apparently early on Wednesday. Two of the apartments were unoccupied and empty, while some Old Monk, a bottle of 100 Pipers whisky, a gold bangle, a pair of earrings and a gold chain are said to be missing from the other two.

No one was arrested till late on Wednesday.

The five-storeyed building, Bypass Kuthi Cooperative Housing Society Limited, is located in Block R of Patuli, near the fire station. The stretch — barely a few hundred metres from Patuli Main Road, adjoining the EM Bypass — is lined with residential buildings.

Residents said many flats across Baishnabghata Patuli Township are unoccupied.

Police said the unoccupied flats the thieves broke into were on the first floor. The other two flats were on the second floor.

The building does not have any guard but has a caretaker who lives with his family in a room on the ground floor.

The occupants of one of the two robbed flats on the second floor were out on vacation, while the owner of the other flat on the floor lives elsewhere in Calcutta and visits his Patuli home ocassionally.

The family that was out of town on vacation returned on Wednesday morning and found the lock on the main door broken.

Soon after, it was discovered that the locks on the main door of other three flats in the building were broken, too.

Investigators said they had found CCTV footage that purportedly showed two young men entering the building early on Wednesday and coming out before sunrise, when it was still dark.

The operation lasted not more than an hour, an officer said.

“One of the flats has a mini-bar. A whisky bottle is missing from there. When we visited the spot, there were two glasses and a half-empty Old Monk bottle on the counter,” said a police officer.

“Apart from a gold bangle, a pair of earrings and a gold chain, the burglars did not touch any valuables.”

Two flats on the top floor are occupied but the residents have told the police that they did not hear anything unusual. “It seems the burglars had information which flats in the building were empty or unoccupied,” an officer at Lalbazar said.

A team from Patuli police station and officers from the anti-burglary squad of the detective department inspected the building and recorded statements of residents. Officers who visited the spot refused to comment.

Metro could not speak to the residents of the building because they were busy answering queries from the police till the evening. One of the families refused to talk over the phone.

“We are questioning all residents of the building. Going by CCTV footage, the accused are teenagers or in their early 20s,” an officer at the police station said.