MADURAI: If you are passionate about something, you must find a way to do it. Taking this TED talk kind of advice to heart, comes a man, from the shadows, with a taste for expensive bikes. While most would call him a thief, an outlaw, this man’s modus operandi was to ‘briefly’ steal bikes, ride them and return them. No harm, no foul?
The ‘perfect crime’ came to the attention of the police when a series of two-wheeler thefts were reported in the past few days in Madurai city, Karimedu and Tallakulam. All the thefts stood out because they had a similar pattern.
Now if you own bikes that are cheap and reliable, we have good news for you. Your thriftiness might have just saved you because our bike thief prefers only expensive bikes. Well, from his perspective it might seem like he ‘borrowed’ those bikes and rode it because he would always return the vehicle to its original place. The crime went on smoothly until it was captured by the CCTV cameras and from there the identity of the bike thief came to light. The police nabbed 21-year-old youth P Naveen Kumar from Sellur early this week.
According to the Karimedu police, Kumar has a ‘passion’ for expensive bikes. “Whichever brands he liked, he stole them at night and after riding them for a few days, he left the stolen vehicles in their original spots. He had stolen at least three two wheelers in the past few weeks,” the police said.
To err is indeed human as Kumar, who had meticulously planned his crime, was arrested when he was identified by the CCTV footage from the areas where the vehicles were stolen. Two bikes which could not be returned to their original place were seized from him.