The city is home to a fast lane, where life is somewhat like a pick from the Hollywood film franchise ‘The Fast and the Furious’, save for one detail: there are no fast cars – only lorries.
In recent times, there has been a murder, a highway chase ending in the death of two thieves and the theft of lorries, with the biggest being a container carrying electronics worth Rs. 3 crore – all on city roads.
The Grand North Trunk Road, better known as Chennai-Kolkatta Highway and Tiruvottiyur High Road, are hunting grounds for gangs of lorry thieves, who often speed away with parked heavy vehicles. Some petty crooks also target parked vehicles and steal their goods.
Police records reveal a total of 13 cases of lorry theft this year, apart from numerous incidents of thefts from lorries. However, lorry owners’ associations claims that nearly 40 container lorries have gone missing from the Sathangadu area alone over the last two years.
“Main roads in Ennore, Manali New Town, Madhavaram Milk Colony, Red Hills and Puzhal are spots from where several lorries have been reported stolen. A lorry driver has even been murdered for the goods he was transporting. We have cracked all the cases, including the murder. Only one case of a lorry theft in Puzhal, is still unsolved. A probe is under way,” said a senior police officer.
Most lorry owners, who bear the brunt of the missing vehicles, each worth nearly Rs. 30 lakh, believe that these thefts are committed with the connivance of the drivers and cleaners.
The biggest heist so far, the theft of a lorry laden with 1,560 computers on its way to Manjampakkam from Chennai Harbour on September 6, was carried out by the lorry driver and his gang. They were arrested within a week and the goods recovered.
“The thefts are easy, as the lorries are parked on the road, which police have been objecting to strongly. Even vehicles parked inside sheds like the Sathangadu yard are not spared. We have owners who have lost more than two vehicles and investigators have not been of much help in these cases,” said J. Raja, joint secretary of the Chennai Steel Yard Trailer Owners’ Association.
According to Mr. Raja, the huge second-hand market for lorry spare parts and engines, even if they are stolen items, has lured thieves into lorry thefts.
Police officers said they have nabbed a lorry theft gang led by Ennore native Raja, which is suspected to have stolen six lorries from Sathangadu. Frequent arrests are also being made of petty thieves who steal items from lorries en route to Chennai Harbour and back, they said.
