Spate of car thefts irks Marine Drive residents

When Bhavesh Jhaveri, a resident of Marine Drive gets up, he is skeptical that he will find his car in the parking area outside his building. Though Netaji Subash Chandra Road is a VIP road, on Wednesday morning, Jhaveri’s car was broken open for the second time in as many as two months.

“This time, they had broken the lock and moved the car. I guess they could not start it because the ignition got locked. Hence, they left my car close by in another building,” he said. Jhaveri is not the only one whose car was not in the place where he had parked the night before.

For the past six months, the tony neighbourhood has witnessed as many as six car thefts in the area — two in January alone. And due to this the secure atmosphere does not exhibit the confidence it used to have earlier.

What they have found ironical is a particular model of car that has been lifted — Hyundai, and more importantly the I10 model.

When contacted, ZM Gharal, senior police inspector of the Marine Drive Police station said, “Five to six cars have been stolen and we have asked the residents to cooperate. Night watchmen sleep and that is when this happens. On our part, we have increased the patrolling and residents have also assured of some steps. We are looking for a gang who seems to be targetting this particular model of cars.”

“It is ironical that they have been targetting only this model,” said Hiten Shah whose I10 was stolen on Friday. “I have filed a police complaint and we are hoping that the police increase security in the area,” he said.

Dr Murli Agarwal, who too lost his car 15 days back, said that he will try to have more security systems, besides the central locking, in place. However, residents still feel that something more needs to be done as the thefts are done brazenly and even during the evening hours.

“My car was stolen in the evening when there was rush hour traffic on the road. There was also a wedding in one of the places in the lane and because of that there was more traffic but the thieves still managed to break open the car,” said Chandraprakash Singhania whose car was stolen six months ago.

Residents, who held a meeting to resolve the issue, now plan to have extra guards during the night.

“A lot of ideas were suggested and it was said that we should have car locks similar to those used by the traffic police and appoint night guards outside the building apart from the ones that are already there. These guards generally sleep through the night as they work in more than one shift. We now plan to pay some guards extra and have security for each building in the night,” said Anil Bhati, secretary of the Marine Drive residents Association-D Road.