In N.Va. Heists, Only the Finest Jewelry Nabbed; Lesser Karats Are Left Behind - washingtonpost.com: Burglars with a keen appreciation for gold have targeted Indian and South Asian homes in a months-long series of daytime break-ins in Northern Virginia.
The burglars are discerning. They have taken 22-karat pieces but left behind sterling silver and well-crafted costume jewelry. They have sifted through floor-length gowns lovingly stored in closets and plucked every custom-made sari threaded with gold and worth thousands, disdaining saris worth only hundreds.
Officers in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, and the homeowners themselves, have yet to figure out how the burglars so successfully identify houses with large gold caches. Before they became victims, many of the families were strangers, and they and police have eliminated many of the obvious links: churches, temples, schools or even grocery stores where they could have been tracked.
