Police will step up patrolling, ensure safety of your favourite sneakersLet’s call him Sneaky Sneakers. This gentleman has a shoe fetish. He arrives in a car in the dead of the night, selects the best pair available, stuffs it into a bag and disappears. He is polite enough to not make a sound and disturb anybody’s sleep.Sneaky Sneakers has apparently made several rounds of HSR Layout Sec-4; many residents found their favourite pair of footwear missing when they got ready for office in the morning of July 21. With one resident’s CCTV cameras showing how Sneaky Sneakers was managing his feat, many more have started checking footage to verify if it’s the same man who struck at their house too.Sneaky Sneakers appears to be well-heeled. He chooses only expensive, branded shoes and leaves behind the local stuff. “On Thursday, he broke into my house after midnight and stole five pairs of shoes worth about Rs 35,000,” said Anil Reddy.Suresh Bhaskaran, whose CCTV camera caught Sneaky Sneakers in action, said: “I saw a taxi on the road around 2.57 am. At the same time a man can be seen walking on the road. He visits three to four houses. He is again caught on camera around 3.24 am, stealing shoes and keeping them in a vacant plot next to my house. He then goes to some more houses and returns to the vacant land in three-four minutes. This time he picks up all the shoes and walks to the corner of the road. Again I see a car zooming off after the man disappears.”Sneaky Sneakers is suspected to have made away with 22-24 pairs of branded shoes in the 40 minutes that he spent on 14th B cross, 17th main, Sector Four of HSR Layout.Residents claim that in the last six months, thieves have stolen at least 100 pairs of shoes and sandals in the area. They say that open plots make their area vulnerable; strangers park their vehicles here and it is difficult to tell a genuine visitor from one who has come to recce the place.Leaving footwear outside the house is a common practice in most parts of Bengaluru. It is basically done for two reasons – to ensure hygiene (why bring filth and dust of the outside world into your house, they say) and prosperity (it is a common Hindu belief that the goddess of wealth resides in the house and bringing footwear inside is considered disrespectful). But this belief appears to be a blessing in disguise for Sneaky Sneakers – he doesn’t think twice before diverting wealth to his own house.In 2015 and 2016, Bangalore Mirror had reported about a shoe thief striking with impunity in apartment blocks in Sahakarnagar and Kodigehalli and even HSR Layout. His modus operandi seemed to be the same as that of Sneaky Sneakers. Police are investigating if he’s the same thief.In the meantime, police have decided to step up security in the area; a new beat register has been issued and constables on night patrol will have to come and sign it every night after completing the rounds.Police are also hoping that people leave their belief aside, and take expensive footwear inside.