Footwear worth about Rs60k stolen from a locality recently; thieves take away the loot in autorickshaws
Think twice before you leave your footwear outside your home. While shoes and sandals going missing from outside temples is common, footwear thieves have now extended their operations to residential areas as well.
Generally, people hesitate to lodge complaints about stolen footwear, nor do police take such complaints seriously. However, with the steady rise in cases of footwear thieves striking homes and walking off with expensive footwear, the police can’t afford to be apathetic towards such complaints.
Owing to the demand for stolen shoes in the market, footwear thieves have upgraded their modus operandi. From just walking off wearing the stolen footwear, they have graduated to using autorickshaws for transporting their loot. It only goes ahead to indicate the profitability of selling stolen shoes.
“I spent `20,000 to put up grill around my house to prevent thieves entering my premises by jumping over the compound wall. They took away shoes and sandals worth `8,000 belonging to my tenants recently,’’ said Sudarshan Reddy, a resident of Maruthinagar.
The residents of Bharath Housing Cooperative Society Layout near Uttarahalli are having sleepless nights. They have lost shoes, sandals and clothes worth around `60,000 in the recent past, thanks to the unabated rise in petty thefts in the area.
“Two groups entered our layout a week ago. While one managed to escape with the booty, we managed to nab the other group, with the help of policemen on night beat, from escaping with the stolen shoes and sandals,’’ said Sharada Kumar, vice-president of the cooperative society.
According to her, the gang members waited in front of her house in an autorickshaw at 3 am, and policemen on night beat got suspicious.
She said one of the gang members told the police that they were returning from a nearby cinema theatre after watching a movie.
However, the policemen, suspecting their story, deflated the autorickshaw tyres. In the melee, the miscreants managed to escape.
“The gang members came to the spot in another autorickshaw the next day. One of them managed to remove the tyres for inflating.
They even claimed to be policemen from Subramanyapura police station. I got suspicious and informed the police and the gang members escaped from the spot and the police towed away the autorickshaw,’’ she said.
Dr Kiran TV, one of the residents, said he lost shoes and sandals worth about Rs6,000.
“Some of the residents were lucky to get back their shoes and sandals from that abandoned autorickshaw. I think my shoes and sandals would have been transported in another autorickshaw to people who sell shoes and sandals at half price near Apsara theatre in the city,’’ he said.
Subramanyapura police inspector Bale Gowda said the owner of the autorickshaw was yet to be identified.
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