Your vehicle is under threat

BENGALURU : Bengaluru has been seeing a new high in motor vehicle thefts with 732 cases this year until March 3. West and South divisions have seen the highest number of cases with 134 and 120 respectively and 70-80 cases in a week in the city. Police sources say that Toyota Innova and Royal Enfields are at the top of the list for operators in the city since they have higher returns.

In addition to this, “Some thefts happen when a person has consumed alcohol and steals a two-wheeler for a fun ride. Once the fuel tank is empty, they park the vehicle somewhere and run away. That is why local stations wait at least for two days before registering a case,” said a police source. However, other sources claim that 90 per cent of the reported cases are genuine cases.

Areas such as Kengeri, Kumaraswamy layout and Hanumanth Nagar are some of the common places with high motor vehicle thefts. “Most are stolen from residential areas during the night and from commercial areas during the day, police said.

The city also has gangs which steal two-wheelers. They sell the vehicles to garages, which use these for spare parts. There are also gangs that pose as potential buyers on online platforms. They meet the sellers and steal their two-wheelers on the pretext of taking the vehicle on a test drive, police said.

So how do the police detect such cases? “We are understanding the traditional ways of frequent operators in the city and using it to find out how others are working. Most of these gangs come from Tamil Nadu. Such acts include inter-state and inter-district crimes,” said Bengaluru City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar, who declined to share details on how the city cops track gang operators in the city. Kumar also mentioned that special efforts are taken where all divisional DCPs are asked to go after the old operators/ criminals and enquire about existing cases or their whereabouts.

A police source, however, revealed to City Express that the city cops use former gang operators or existing ones who act as informants providing facts and particulars regarding the thefts that take place.
“The problem is that victims park their vehicle on roads up to 300 metres away from their own house. So nobody will know when the vehicle is stolen. Another point is that people are confident of parking on the road since they are sure of claiming insurance,” explained S Annamalai, DCP (south).

Police sources said that in a majority of the detected chain snatching cases, they found the culprits using stolen bikes to carry out thefts. Such gang members steal a bike, snatch chains and then leave the vehicle in some isolated place before fleeing. Some even steal high-end bikes just for a joyride, police said. While the detection numbers are extremely low, police officials say that there are many vehicles lying in city police stations which nobody bothers to claim.