Car battery thieves now in super-charged mode

CHANDIGARH: In just the last month, thieves have removed 12 car batteries from vehicles parked outside different houses in three sectors of the city. Police have registered cases and started investigation but have failed to bust the gang, so far.
Battery thieves have struck in Sectors 8, 15, and 20. In Sector 20-C on June 5, they decamped with six car batteries in a single night and also took away the car of a schoolteacher. Next, they stole four car batteries from Sector 8 on June 3 and 4, and removed another two from Sector 15 on June 12. Cops from police jurisdictions where these thefts occurred teamed up with the crime branch and operations cell to hunt them down but found no luck.

Police suspect the hand of some motor mechanics or car battery dealers in these crimes in the city. Mechanics know where to sell the batteries and how to extract these from under the car bonnets. A normal thief would not be so swift and silent. Mechanics also know the people who need car batteries urgently and will pay for these instantly.

Recently, the Manimajra police had arrested a former bouncer for stealing music systems from cars parked outside the houses in various sectors and recovered stolen electronics worth about Rs 4 lakh. However, they did not recover any car battery from him or found evidence of his involvement in any case of battery theft in the city.

Nirmal Singh, a resident of Sector 20-C, who found his Honda City without its battery on June 5 woke up next morning to find the car missing. The locks of his other car, a hatchback, had been broken and the battery was missing. He raised an alarm and neighbours gathered on the spot. Neighbours Sukhbir Singh and Sukhwinder Singh reported thefts of their car batteries next before three more residents of the area found their cars missing the same device.

Nirmal Singh, a Punjabi teacher in the Sector 21 government model school, said no security camera was installed near his house or in the neighbourhood. On June 4, Anu Chatrath of Sector 8 had reported theft of two car batteries.