JOIN USHigh-end car logos vanish in Mangalore
Recently, a marble merchant discovered to his dismay two logos of his brand new high-end car had been unriveted — without a scratch.
He intimated the security guard of his apartment to be extra vigilant as there were a couple of other expensive cars in the same building.
Residents express shock
A week later, there was commotion in the apartment. A thief had broken into a garage to steal the logo of a car. The residents, who had caught and thrashed the young burglar, found out to their shock the lad was a 9th standard student of a government school.
The perplexed residents called the police. On being quizzed, the boy revealed he was one of those children caught in the vicious circle of poverty and hunger and ended up being criminal.
The boy told the police he was lured by a man from Aakash Bhavan to do the “job” for him with the promise of a hefty “pay” for a pair of car logos.
Police searched the boy’s room and recovered two bagfuls of logos of expensive cars like the German-made Volkswagen and BMW. He said he used a steel measuring scale to remove the logos, and that many more children his age could be involved in such thefts.
When the police tried contacting the boy’s “boss” at Aakash Bhavan, his phone was switched off. They had to let go of the boy considering his future.
A hotelier from the city too lost the logo of his car a couple of weeks ago. A car dealer from the city, on condition of anonymity, said it was a craze among gizmo and car freaks to fix original logos of expensive cars to cheaper cars.
He added that very often people owning an old Contessa stuck a Mercedes logo on it, just to give it the Merc look.
Huge demand
The stolen logos are allegedly sent to Kerala where there is a huge demand for them. Some say the logos are sold like hot cakes in Mangalore, too.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravindra Gadadi told Deccan Herald that people seldom reported logo thefts because they think it’s trivial.
“It is a serious issue as there has been one incident where a child had been caught. We will take it seriously and try to get to the root of the matter,” the officer said, not ruling out a racket.