Fairoz Nayeem (name changed) forgot to lock his two-wheeler parked overnight outside his father-in-law’s house in Udyagiri in Mysuru. When he came out of the house early next morning, his two-wheeler was missing.
After making the routine inquiries with neighbours, Mr. Nayeem went to the police station to lodge a complaint. A surprise was in store for him there. His two-wheeler was parked at the police station. He got his two-wheeler back after he not only produced the original documents of the vehicle to prove his ownership, but also after receiving a thorough dressing down from the police for his carelessness.
Apparently, the night policemen, who found the two-wheeler parked unlocked on the road, rode it to the station. “Leaving vehicles unlocked is an open invitation to thieves. So, we took it away. It is highly irresponsible on the part of two-wheeler owners to leave their vehicles unlocked,” said the police official of Udayagiri police station, who had taken away the two-wheeler for safe-keeping.
A. Subramanyeswara Rao, City Police Commissioner, said city police officials routinely take away unlocked two wheelers from the parking lots across the city. The vehicles are returned only after the owners are warned about the consequences of leaving their vehicles unlocked and verifying their ownership documents.
Taking away unlocked vehicles by the police has been identified as one of the reasons by them for a dip in two wheeler thefts in Mysuru.
Against the 414 two-wheeler thefts reported in Mysuru in 2016, 305 two-wheelers were stolen in 2017. The In 2018 – till June 26 – the number of two wheelers stolen is 118.
Other reasons cited for a decline in two-wheeler thefts include Operation Cheetah during which police personnel from Law and Order as well as Traffic jointly carry out checking of vehicles at different places in the city, intensifying of night rounds under Operation Eagle and deploying personnel in plainclothes at areas notorious for vehicle thefts under Operation Decoy.
Installation of CCTV cameras by the police, in association with private parties at key parking slots across the city, and constituting special squads to trace the stolen vehicles also helped bring down vehicle thefts, the police said.
