You know that sinking feeling when you check gold prices these days? That moment when you realize the small chain you bought three years ago is now worth more than your monthly salary? Well, here’s the thing, criminals are feeling exactly the opposite.

At Rs 1.25 lakh per 10 grams today, gold isn’t just hitting record highs. It’s rewriting the economics of crime in ways that should make every gold owner in India very, very nervous.

Let’s talk numbers, because they don’t lie. Since 2020, as gold prices shot up by 160%, something else climbed alongside crime rates. Chain snatching cases jumped 75%. Bank heists targeting gold increased by a staggering 500%.

But here’s the kicker: our data crunching revealed a correlation coefficient of 0.842 between gold prices and criminal activity. In plain English? For every rupee gold prices rise, criminals get that much more motivated.

Think about it. The same 2-gram chain that would’ve netted a thief Rs 9,600 in 2020 now gets them ₹25,000. Same effort, 160% more reward. It’s basic criminal economics, and unfortunately, it’s working.

If you’re reading this from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, or any Telugu-speaking region, brace yourself. We’re witnessing the worst of it.

Hyderabad alone recorded 139 gold-related crimes this year. That’s nearly one every two days. Warangal saw India’s biggest bank heist, 19 kilograms of gold vanishing in a single night. In Tirupati, a Union Bank official........

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