South Asian communities in England, U.S. and Canada are being warned of a crime wave fuelled by the price of gold.
Burglars and snatch thieves are targeting South Asian homes and women for their jewelry as the demand for gold remains strong globally.
South Asian families traditionally pass collections of 22-karat gold from generation to generation. 
Gold in the form of bangles, necklaces and other jewelry is also viewed as a safe investment or safety net in South Asian communities.
With the wedding season in full tilt, Indian families also typically give gold jewelry as gifts to newlywed brides.
Home security consultants and police are advising those with large amounts of jewelry to keep them in bank safety deposit boxes and to be alert when wearing gold or diamonds in public.
“Insurance companies are not likely to cover the losses, if the jewelry is not specifically listed in the policy,” said a security consultant.
“My best advice is not to flaunt your jewels at this time,” he said, reiterating his comments when a similar crime wave was happening in 2009, when Surrey RCMP reported that at least six East Indian women had been attacked recently on the streets for their gold earrings.
The assailant approached the women from behind while they were walking alone and snatched one of their earrings out of their ears.
The latest spate of incidents has been reported in California’s Silicon Valley’s Indian-American communities in recent months,” the New York Times reported citing its partner newspaper the Bay Citizen.
Indian Americans are one of the fastest-growing populations in the Bay Area, and their numbers have nearly doubled to 111,000 in Santa Clara County alone in the past decade.
The exact number of gold thefts is difficult to determine because the crimes have happened in several jurisdictions and victims’ ethnicity is not always made public, the paper said.
But interviews with the police, government and civic leaders, and representatives of the region’s Indian-American community confirmed the trend and growing alarm, it said.
“It increased significantly nine months ago,” Anu Natarajian, a Fremont city councilwoman was quoted as saying. “It’s not a random thing that’s happening. People are afraid. People are nervous about it.”
Indian-Americans were known for owning high-quality gold of 20 and 22 karats. With the price of gold surging since the recession began, that makes them lucrative targets; Sergeant Jeff Swadener of the Fremont Police Department was quoted as saying.
Most of the thefts have happened while residents were not home, and had inadvertently advertised the fact through another tradition: they leave their shoes outside the home on stoops or in racks.
“No shoes, no one home,” Sergeant Swadener said.
Robberies of gold jewellery have been reported throughout the Bay Area in recent months, including at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations, and a gold dealer in Hayward was shot to death at his home Sept. 18, the Times said.
Some of the break-ins in the United States have netted more than US$100,000 worth of jewelry, victims reported.
Earlier, this year, a New York City woman who admitted being part of a ring of picky burglars which targeted dozens of South Asian homes in Washington suburbs was sentenced to three years in federal prison. 
Melinda M. Soto, 34, and her husband, Dagoberto Soto Ramirez, admitted to burglarising 37 homes and stealing nearly $600,000 worth of gold jewellery.
In U.K., police have issued a press release urging people not to wearing expensive jewellery in public due to the growing trend in street robberies.
“Gold prices reached record highs in recent weeks and we believe this could be a contributing factor as to why we have seen a peak in this type of crime,” British cops said.
Locally, in Surrey an employee of the Sona Chandi jewellery store was shot in the abdomen during a robbery.
“Unless it is a private reception or party, many have opted to wear costume jewellery,” said a Surrey goldsmith.
“These things happen whenever the price of gold spikes,” he said.
He said that many of the cash for gold parties and home businesses are also providing an avenue for gold thieves to sell their loot.
Gold prices went down as much as 11 percent last month after registering a historic high in the previous month.
But many analysts said the demand for the shiny metal is so strong amid the American and European financial woes that gold is expected to cross the $2,000 mark next year.