[URWELCOME]

Mod note: Please avoid quoting entire large post for replies. Thanks

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

Here's a harrowing freak incident that happened to me. I have left out most of the personally identifiable information & location references.
======
In my incident of that day, I held back as much as I could so as not to escalate the situation. Also if it had come to a physical confrontation - though "I think" I could have overpowered the 3 lawless wicked people, I didn't know if they were carrying any weapons. So just didn't give an opportunity for it to escalate.

Sorry for your ordeal.
People have least concern for other vehicles and have the audacity to harm/threaten/rob others only because there is not proper punishment. Our judiciary is to be blamed here.
Nowadays there are many such chapris in streets and not sure if we need to face them or leave when we come across such situations. leaving will give them a feeling that they are right.

[DustyWanderer]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

Here's a harrowing freak incident that happened to me. I have left out most of the personally identifiable information & location references.
I got robbed and chased by miscreants - could have escalated to an ugly outcome.

After reading about this incident, I have decided to upgrade my car dash camera to 3 channel 4k Dash Cam, so that I can atleast submit some sort of a proof at the police station.

Maybe I will also get the jio automotive OBD2 port device as well, in case this scooter gang decides to steal the car and I will have a way to track their movements.

Seems like the AI cameras and all latest technologies implemented are only there to penalize the citizens for traffic challans.

[OffRoadFun]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

Here's a harrowing freak incident that happened to me. I have left out most of the personally identifiable information & location references.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. No one should have to go through this but unfortunately many of us have to. I myself have gone through similar incidents. Did you have an out of KA number plate by any chance?

Hope police takes action against them.

Sorry for the rant but with police advising against FIR, which they are obligated to register, some team-bhp ians even suggesting (perhaps rightly?) that nothing is going to come out with an FIR since police is too busy, I guess we have reconciled to the fact that bureaucracy can decide which citizens are more important than others and the process of our hurtling towards a semi-lawless banana republic stands expedited every single day!

[Amrit@wheels]

Honestly, there is no point in getting involved with these low-life scums. They have nothing to lose, you have everything. My father, an ex-IAF QRT commando, gave me the best advice when it comes to such situations, "always avoid them". One thing that I couldn't figure out is how he was able to take your phone, assuming that the windows were locked.
P.S. Get a dashcam asap, preferably both front and back.

[ChristComesSoon]

Originally Posted by OffRoadFun

... Did you have an out of KA number plate by any chance?

No. I have a KA registration number.

Originally Posted by OffRoadFun

.... I guess we have reconciled to the fact that bureaucracy can decide which citizens are more important than others and the process of our hurtling towards a semi-lawless banana republic stands expedited every single day!

Sad, but true..

Thanks for your message of solidarity.
Yes, many of us are having to go through such uninvited experiences, and incur losses.

The more of us raise voices and bring attention to such incidents, the better chance we have to see change. As they say, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'

Originally Posted by Amrit@wheels

...One thing that I couldn't figure out is how he was able to take your phone, assuming that the windows were locked.

After I was forced to stop, I rolled down the window on the left partially, to try to talk to the person on the left. Later I turned to the right side window, and rolled it down - to talk to the 2 persons on my right side. This was when the person on the left reached in and took the phone which was on the seat, without me knowing it. (I had a messenger bag and my phone on the passenger seat).

Originally Posted by Amrit@wheels

P.S. Get a dashcam asap, preferably both front and back.

On it.

[HIGHWAY_PATROL]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

Here's a harrowing freak incident that happened to me. I have left out most of the personally identifiable information & location references.

I got robbed and chased by miscreants - could have escalated to an ugly outcome.

Hi,

Its sad that you had this terrible experience. Most of the time, even a bunch of timid people get cocky when they clearly see that they outnumber the opposite party. As suggested by many above, please get a dashcam installed.

I have one-touch power window on the driver side and I still worry at times thinking about situations when I dont want to open the window all the way down but my fingers betray me.

Kind Regards

[revsperminute]

Sad state of affairs; my dad went through a similar situation last year. He was on his way home from the office around 4 PM on a rainy afternoon in Bombay. A group of 2-3 similarly aged men, as mentioned in the OP’s post, were walking along the metal barricades set up for metro construction in front of Powai IIT signal. As traffic started moving, one of them pretended to get hit by my dad’s car, sitting down in front of it while others placed their hands on the bonnet and pointed downwards. When my dad stepped out, the guy on the road miraculously healed and left. After clearing the signal, my dad realized both his phones, collectively worth more than 3 lakh rupees, had been stolen. Another friend had his laptop bag stolen in a similar incident where a bike brake-checked him.

The police filed reports in both cases, but I’m doubtful about the extent of their efforts. I’ve advised my parents never to exit the car if anything similar happens again. Whatever follows can be handled with lawyers.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

Why is it hard for us Indians to comprehend that there are faster vehicles on the road, and that it's just decency to give way to a faster vehicle? Why should a short honk be interpreted as "offensive"?

Let us look at the other side of this coin. No, people do not have a right to expect others to get out of their way, assuming others are driving at reasonable speed and/or keeping to the speed of other cars in front.

I do agree, though, that single honk should not be thought offensive. I do not make way for bullies*, but I do try to facilitate others and let them past. Especially if some circumstance is making me drive slowly.

I wonder about expectations of police action. With no licence plate numbers, no web-cam footage, etc etc, I do not know what they might be expected to do.



*Actually, I do: it is safer to have them in front than behind. But I am an imperfect human, and I do sometimes annoy them a little first!

[ChristComesSoon]

Originally Posted by revsperminute

Sad state of affairs; my dad went through a similar situation last year. He was on his way home from the office around 4 PM on a rainy afternoon in Bombay. A group of 2-3 similarly aged men, as mentioned in the OP’s post, were walking along the metal barricades set up for metro construction in front of Powai IIT signal. As traffic started moving, one of them pretended to get hit by my dad’s car, sitting down in front of it while others placed their hands on the bonnet and pointed downwards. When my dad stepped out, the guy on the road miraculously healed and left. After clearing the signal, my dad realized both his phones, collectively worth more than 3 lakh rupees, had been stolen. Another friend had his laptop bag stolen in a similar incident where a bike brake-checked him.

Terrible! Have heard of this tactic - and have seen a few youtube videos on this - from all across the world. Pretend to get hit, while accomplices rob.

This is organized crime.

They do this, because they know they can get away with it with little to no consequences.

'Not to act, is to act.

Not to speak, is to speak.'

[Ravi Parwan]

this seems to have become an organized crime racket, where they distract the driver and steal from the vehicle.

Dashcam has become a must to have some proof for the police and insurance. it would also help in naming and shaming the miscreants.

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

In fact they asked me to check with the shops myself! The audacity!

Very surprised to hear the police response. The Mumbai police response would have been atleast better is what I would like to believe. Tracing this phone would have been the minimum they would have done and then visited the place.

P.S. - Mumbai police, like other police, always discourages FIRs and complaints.
Their metric of performance is resolution rate, they manage this by minimizing the denominator.

Also, I was defrauded by some people online and I made a complaint on cybersecurity complaints website. They closed the complaint without any resolution.

[ChristComesSoon]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Let us look at the other side of this coin. No, people do not have a right to expect others to get out of their way, assuming others are driving at reasonable speed and/or keeping to the speed of other cars in front.

• Driving slowly is indeed not a crime. But giving way when you know there's loads of space before you, is the courteous/considerate thing to do for your neighbor (on the roads). In my experience, 90% of such cases are when people attempt to go past someone, seeing there is a tremendous gap between the vehicle ahead and the one before it. Usually, when two slow vehicles go at similar speed blocking multiple lanes. (Example multiple autos, spread across multiple lanes, going slow and obstructing traffic - forcing the public to snake through them painfully.)
• Caring for one's neighbor (on the roads), is to assume that he has legitimate reason(s) to overtake. The most obvious of which, usually, is the big stretch of empty road before the slow moving vehicle.
• Also what is the "cost" involved in giving way? - just that one needs to move laterally so as to accommodate another vehicle going past. In most cases, giving way does not even need a slowing down on one's part.
• I for one, keep aware all the time, of vehicles behind me through regular glances in the rear view mirror - and ensure to give way when I see a faster vehicle trying to overtake me. (Provided, there is empty road ahead of me.)

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I wonder about expectations of police action. With no licence plate numbers, no web-cam footage, etc etc, I do not know what they might be expected to do.

I gave them descriptions of the vehicles and the persons. Since it was early in the morning, the roads were relatively free, except for large trucks on the right most lane (the fast lane). Since there was a chase of over 4 kms - it would have been possible for the Police to get CCTV footage.

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

We asked the police to access CCTVs of shops / establishments on the road - and they just couldn't be bothered with that much work.

In fact they asked me to check with the shops myself! The audacity!

This explains why. Every day I find a new news report or dashcam footage on X(Twitter) on such incidents and almost all of them are from Bengaluru.

[SrichakradharV]

Dear TeamBHP members, This is my very first comment/post in this forum, having got the membership approval very recently.

These kind of incidents are on a rise everywhere, especially in Bangalore. Having stayed in Bangalore from 2013-2021, I see a stark difference in the general apathy towards citizen rights. I am currently pursuing LLB from Hyderabad and would be returning back to Bangalore next year (hopefully).

I think the residents of Bangalore have to actively pursue the civic agencies including police to make the city safer. The people coming from North are often the soft targets of these culprits. As a law abiding citizen, the sense of lawlessness cannot be excused.

Please let us discuss about the options in hand, so that a fellow Indian does not fall pray to such acts and feel defeated by an irresponsible police force.

[Amrit@wheels]

Originally Posted by ChristComesSoon

After I was forced to stop, I rolled down the window on the left partially, to try to talk to the person on the left. Later I turned to the right side window, and rolled it down - to talk to the 2 persons on my right side. This was when the person on the left reached in and took the phone which was on the seat, without me knowing it. (I had a messenger bag and my phone on the passenger seat).

Another lesson for all of us, never ever roll down your windows in such cases. If you are forced to for some reason, only roll down like half an inch or so.