Gang of student motorbike lifters in police net

MANGALURU: Unable to get funds to repair a car which met with an accident they had a joy ride in, a gang of minors from Kerala turned into motorbike thieves after getting lessons from YouTube.
Their run was ended by the Mangaluru City police after eight of the students were nabbed, including five adults from Kerala, who managed to steal as many as 24 high-end bikes from city. The arrested adults are Robin, Arjun, Bijoy and Augustine, while Unais is absconding. They pursue their degree and engineering studies, while all the minors are PU students in Kanhangad.

Explaining their entry into the world of motorcycle theft, investigation officer and Mangaluru North police station inspector Yogish said all of the arrested are friends since their childhood days. One day, they had taken a car from an acquaintance and gone to Mysuru on a tour. They met with an accident and the car got heavily damaged. However, since they were minors and had no driving license, a case was not booked. They couldn’t claim insurance to repair the car, and the owner of the car kept pestering them to give money. All of them belonged to middle class families. During their time of crisis, a person they met advised them to steal motorbikes to make some money.

Police said one of the masterminds behind the thefts is a junior-most one among them, who learnt all sorts of motorbike stealing techniques by watching videos on YouTube. The group first started their operations in Kasaragod, where they stole two brand new motorbikes, which they sold for Rs 45,000. There was no stopping them after this, and they became masters in stealing motorbikes. After this, they eyed Mangaluru city as their next destination. At first, the group would come by train to the city. After this they moved around secluded places to find good motorbikes, steal them and flee to Kerala. They would later sell it to a garage owner for throwaway prices.

After becoming financially stable, they used to come to the city in rented cars. They would come from their hometown Kanhangad in Kasaragod district at midnight, cross the Karnataka border and later go around the city scouting for motorbikes to steal.

They targeted motorbikes parked near call centres and similar establishments, which have sparse human movement, to steal. After stealing the motorcycles, they rode them to their place of origin. The police said they would unlock and steal a motorbike in five minutes flat, irrespective of which company it was from.

Explaining how the police got to them, an police official said that after getting some clues, they kept observing the movement of vehicles at Talapady toll gate. Once in a while, a car would come from Kerala, which on returning, would have four to five motorbikes behind it. The thieves game then got over, and they landed in the police net a few days ago.

In a span of three months starting from March, they have stolen 24 motorbikes, from which one is yet to be recovered. The motorbike which is yet to be recovered has been sold to a man in Tamil Nadu.