Chennai: Two youth on lorry stealing spree held

Chennai: A special team from the Chennai police arrested two  youngsters who had allegedly stolen lorries parked in the western suburbs of the city and then sold them to people, posing as owners of the vehicle. Police had seized four lorries from them.

They were identified as Tirumalai and Prakash, who used to go around on a motorbike to identify the lorries they could steal. After making sure that the driver is not around, they would steal the lorry after starting the lorry with a metal object and drive away it, police said.

Following a spurt in instances of disappearance of parked lorries in the last few weeks in Tirumullaivoyil, Nazarathpet, Sundaracholapuram, Ayyapakam, a special team comprising crime inspectors from Ambattur police district was formed to probe the incidents.

While one team collected CCTV footage from the neighbourhood from where the lorries disappeared and browsed through it looking for clues, another them located a stolen lorry with a man in Vellore, who had purchased it from two youth.

The police collected the names and phone numbers of Tirumalai and Prakash,  who sold the lorry to the man in Vellore and started hunting for them.
“The two had posed as relatives of the lorry owners and sold it to buyers,” police said.

Police tracked two other stolen lorries with a man in Madipakkam. The two youth had sold him the lorries after posing as lorry owners.

The two even signed a sale agreement with buyer Suresh. After taking an advance of Rs 20,000 they left saying that they would bring the original documents of the vehicle soon.

With the help of mobile phone numbers and also CCTV footage, the police tracked down the two and arrested them. Tirumalai is an expert in stealing while Prakash drives away stolen lorries and parks them in safe areas, police added.
The police have recovered four lorries and they are still looking for three
more lorries stolen by the duo.