Skip to main content

Crime on the rise - Indiranagar & Bengaluru

What was otherwise a normal Tuesday morning, took a nasty turn about two months ago. I was awoken to the news that two cycles were stolen in the middle of the night from my house. Anyone who knows me well enough, knows how much I love cycling and love my cycle in particular. At first, the thought that someone could even have the guts to enter the compound of my house (by jumping over the locked gate) and steal two cycles that were locked was nerve wracking to be honest. After a lot of trouble and completely non-cooperating neighbours, we managed to secure CCTV footage from a neighbouring building and even called the police (who were actually pretty responsive and sent their personel within half an hour of calling). Two months on, although we have a pretty good idea about who did it, we are helpless and have received almost no redressal from the police other than them assuring us that if they found cycles that matched our description, they would whatsapp us the pictures. Two brand new cycles (one was about three months old and the other hardly two months) were gone. Over Twenty Thousand Rupees was down the drain.

While the occasional crime in a neighbourhood is not uncommon, what prompted me to write this blog is to highlight the increase in crime, especially against thefts of cycles. Hardly a week ago, on a cycling group on FaceBook, another individual had posted details of his cycles along with a CCTV footage of it been stolen by three men. This was also in Indiranagar. Although it is not clear from the video and I did not press for further details, it is pretty evident that the crime was premeditated just like in our case. Two men walked with clear intent to our house, without even peering into other houses, jumped over the gate, removed tools from their backpack, cut the lock (of the cycles), one jumped back out and the other facilitated the movement of the cycle over the gate and rode them away to never be seen again. It was perfectly orchestrated in about seven minutes.

When we spoke to our neighbours who have lived here for a longer time than us, they said that this was very common in all parts of Indiranagar. Their own scooter was stolen in the dead of the night!
What appauled me is that the police also knew that cycles were a common item to be stolen as it is easy to steal and resell to make quick money. However, they showed barely any interest to collect any evidence. We ourselves had to beg and plead neighbouring buildings to share their  CCTV footage and we spent countless number of hours examining it. All the police did was share our suspicion and take in a suspect for questioning after which he was released as he did not confess. No follow up work was done. However, they added that our case would be added a huge list of cycle theft cases and we would be surely intimated of any update.

Two and a half months later, I finally bought a new cycle. Once again, it was a Firefox and at checkout while talking to the Manager, he asked us why we were buying a new cycle again as he was aware that our previous ones were bought recently. Upon telling him that it had been stolen, he said that many customers of his were frequent repeats because of this very issue. Firefox cycles were stolen more commonly as it is an international brand that gets a higher resale value. Stealing cycles is rampant all across Bengaluru. One of his customers lost their cycle (a high-end one around 1 lakh rupees) when they were mugged while cycling. Students lost their cycles while leaving it outside tution centers that they went to.
The Manager offered to sell us insurance for our cycle, the premium of which is 9% of the value of the cycle and told us that we would receive 100% of the money back if our cycle was stolen within the first year. He said that all that had to be done is for a First Information Report to be filed and the money would be refunded. However, this insurance had to be bought within three days of purchase of the cycle.

This raises a few more concerns. 9% of the value as a premium is a lot of money. I can think about two probabale reasons for this premium. Firstly, it is easier for people to committ insurance fraud as it is easy to claim that a cycle was stolen rather than a car being stolen. Secondly, the common occurence of cycle thefts will obviosuly drive up the premium paid.
To put this into persepctive, we own a Toyota Innova that was bought in 2009. The value of the car today is probably around INR 8 lakhs (if not less). The insurance premium paid for it just INR 11,000 which is about 1.375% of the value of the car.

Apart from the insurance related concern, the theft has proven to me that even locking your cycles with branded, 'good quality' locks (I owned a BTWIN lock that was extremely thick and sturdy) will not protect it against being cut and stolen. Prior to the incident, I used to lock my cycle around a pole near the Indiranagar Metro Station (as there is no parking facility available) and leave it there confidently for a couple of hours while I used the metro to get to a place and come back. I incorporated all the tips and tricks that you may read online such as lock both the frame as well as the wheel to the pole (there have been cases were the wheel was removed and the rest of the cycle was taken away when only the wheel was locked to the pole) and lock it in a secluded but not too secluded area, away from traffic and such. However, all this will prove futile when in a couple of minutes, if not seconds, it can be easily broken and stolen.
Although I finally own a new cycle now, extra precautions have to be taken while parking it both at home and outside. We have now installed CCTV cameras at key points around the house and the cycle is parked in much more secure area. Outside, the cycle will be parked for the least possible duration and the best that I can do is hope that it is not stolen.
The police have to take some sort of action to crack down on these robbers for both cyclists and insurance companies may go bankrupt if they do not ;)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting the Kasturinagar (KA-03) RTO - a tumultuous but manageable experience to get a Learner's/ Driver's License without an agent/ driving school

Ask anyone, and I can guarantee that they will have a story (and in most cases, many stories) about their trip, or rather, numerous trips to the RTO for something as simple as getting a Learner's License (LL) or a Driver's License (DL). In this blog, I hope to make your life a tad bit easier by guiding you through the entire process, which may seem easy at first but is full of (overcome able) challenges if you know what you are doing. I turned 18 in January this year, and besides cutting a cake, I worked on my LL application online. I challenged myself to complete the entire LL to DL process by myself and without the help of an agent or a driving school, unlike what the majority do. The lengthy application process and multiple visits to the RTO, impressed upon me why most people decided to pay a little extra to get an agent to do it for them. Still, I was determined not to pay a single rupee more than the official cost. I succeeded.  Do note that this answer is concerning the K

Kicking off a 'political career' in an idea-based, grassroots level political party

Despite having been following politics for the longest time, and now studying it full time, I never joined a political party. When people used to ask me "who do you support?", my answer was standard, "no one". Luckily for me, ever since turning 18 and being eligible to vote, there hasn't been an election in which I'd be forced to cast my vote and tell people that I have made a definitive choice about a particular political party. At a time when politics has become ever so polarising and dirty, I couldn't be happier to associate myself with the BNP. It was in February 2020 that I was introduced to the Bengaluru NavaNiramana Party. I found their vision, leadership and ideas incredibly refreshing. Though I was aware of their launch/ kickoff meeting that took place in Freedom Park in early 2020, due to a friend's TEDx talk taking place simultaneously, I could not attend. Then, between Board Exams and the lockdown that took us all by surprise, I forgot ab

2011 Ooty Golf Championship Open

We had gone to Mangalore to visit my mother's relatives. We stayed there for 2 days. Then we left to Ooty for my Ooty Tournament. Here is what we did: Day 1 It was a long drive from Mangalore to Ooty, it is 360 Kms. We left at 5:30 a.m from Mangalore and reached our homestay at 4:00 p.m. I explored the house and then started to read my book. Here are a few pictures we had taken on the way to Ooty:  A tree with no leaves  The Beautiful Sky  After a while we went to a super market to buy a few things. Then we went to a leather shop. Over there I bought a leather belt. Then we  went to Dominos Pizza to have dinner. After that we headed back to our homestay. Day 2 (Practise Round and much more) I woke up at 7:15 a.m. I got ready fast and then had my breakfast. After that my sister, father and I left to the golf course for the practise round. When we reached there we first registered for the tournament and then started to play. My father came with my sister and me o

Living life out of a suitcase

  December 2022 As I sit on my fourteenth flight for the year, with two more scheduled before the curtains are drawn on 2022 (god bless my carbon footprint), laptop open, a glass of wine and a blank word document, I begin to ponder over my journey over the last few months. Penning it down and (at the risk of sounding philosophical) ‘reflecting’ on this journey seems imperative.  --- May 2022   After two wonderful years of ups and downs in Le Havre (thank you, COVID-19!), I said my good-byes, packed my bags and was on the train to Paris. But that was not my final destination – for now at least. After spending two nights at a friend’s, dropping my baggage off at a relative’s, catching the French Open and a round of golf in the middle, and a train to Beauvais (an hour north of Paris), I was on a flight to Barcelona. Checked in to my hostel, met my friend, went for 3 days of the Barcelona Formula 1 Grand Prix together, watched a Redbull 1-2 finish, celebrated with beer, sangria and tapas,

Ather Energy - Electric Scooters that compete with Aprilias and Vespas

Ather Energy, a Bengaluru based start up created by former IITians finally unveiled their electric scooters - Ather 340 and the Ather 450. Priced slightly on the higher side at INR 1.09 L and 1.24L (on road - Bengaluru) including the FAME subsidy and all taxes, the scooters are exciting and a must try for scooter buyers who do not mind shelling out a little more money than a mid-range scooter would cost and do not mind using it primarily for short distance commutes. Ather 450 Their showroom is located on 100ft Road in Indiranagar. You can visit them at any time and their staff is extremely accomadating and will help you with any queries that you may have. If there is not too much of a crowd, they will allow you to take a test ride too. Ather opened their showroom today (8th, June, 2018). I visited them and was mighty pleased with what they were doing. In an interesting conversation with Mr. Swapnil Jain , the humble and down to earth Co-Founder and CTO, I learnt a lot abo

Photos

These are a few photos that I took:

Decentralized Social Network - Sphere

The world has been witnessing paradigm shifts in certain ways of executing day to day activities over the past few decades. Taxis are now being hailed with a smartphone, without even communicating over voice with the driver. Food is being ordered online and delivered by delivery boys who rely on a digital map to navigate to the place of delivery. CDs and cassettes have been replaced by computers and phones. Film cameras have been replaced by DSLRs. Gone are the days when cheques were sent via post and deposited into the bank a few days (or even weeks) later. IMPS, NEFT and other methods of transferring money have become popular. The Digital Revolution has truly changed the way we do many things. While the first decade and a half of the 21st Century dealt with merely digitizing the world, in recent years "Decentralization" has become an idea that many people are embracing and promoting. The Block Chain Technology that has gone hand in glove with many aspects of Decentralizati