Surrey home broken into leading to fraudulent spending spree

A man from Surrey says he has been victimized by an apparent thief after his sixth-floor condominium was broken into earlier this week.

Muralisrinivas Kommineni says it happened Monday at his apartment on 139A Street near 108th Avenue.

“By the time I woke up at 7 a.m., I had a bunch of messages from my bank warning of fraudulent transactions initiated from my bank account,” Kommineni told OMNI News.

He checked his balances and says he found dozens of purchases made at nearby convenience, drug, and vape stores, worth close to $2,000 in total.

“I called my bank and said I don’t what’s going on, I don’t know what these transactions are, and the first thing they asked was, ‘Where is your card.’”

Kommineni says that is when he remembered he had left his wallet in his car and noticed the door to the condo was ajar.

“Not right open, just a little bit. I could see that it’s not locked and the door is stuck on the mat,” he explained. “And then I saw the car keys — which usually are right next to the  main door — were missing.”

He says he went to the garage, saw that his car was gone, and immediately called the police.

Kommineni suspects he or his wife somehow left the door to their home caught on the mat and unlocked, allowing the apparent thief access to their space, adding that nothing but the keys, which were hanging on a rack beside the door, were missing.

Security video shows someone roaming the garage before 4 a.m., using the fob to find and unlock the vehicle before driving away.

Kommineni says the building is quite secure, with surveillance cameras everywhere, and that police and building management are trying to figure out how anyone could have made it inside.

“I see, here and there, people holding the front door for some people. I’ve seen it a few times. The property management has notices everywhere in the common places saying don’t allow strange people into the building, but I’ve seen sometimes people hold doors and do that.”

Kommineni calls the situation alarming and says he and his wife pushed their sofa against the door to their condo the following night.

“It’s scary that this would happen in such a brand new secure condo. Someone managed to come in, someone managed to break into a home, someone managed to go to the parking lot and take a car from a building that has 40, 50, 60 cameras — that’s obviously, really scary.”

Kommineni says management has been re-securing common areas and has removed access for the stolen building and garage fobs.

“I knocked on my neighbours’ doors and told them what happened and asked if they saw anyone or heard any sounds of someone breaking in. None of them said they’d seen anything suspicious.”  

The Surrey Police Service confirms it received a report of a stolen vehicle from the apartment block, which has not yet been found. Police say the incident remains under investigation.

With files from OMNI News.