[latentpotential]

Have been a victim of something very similar.

Location: Opp Sion Hospital in Mumbai at the spot as soon as you get down from the new Matunga bridge and get stuck in traffic. Lost a phone worth ~800 Rs.

[Bluey]

Mod Note : There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[ricky_speed]

Originally Posted by GTO

Smooth operation, I must say!

Place the bag in the boot (away from prying eyes) or better yet, carry it with you.

Yes, it's better to carry it with you than to place it in the boot. It is now customary to open the boot to get it checked by security guards at shopping malls, hotels or even some office complexes. You wouldn't realize that your have a article missing until much later.

I always like to carry my stuff in the boot, but I am always worried if I may stop by a mall and forget that I've a bag in the boot.

[Fullrevs]

Having been a victim of the ole sliperoo in london twice (once was my cellphone, the other my wallet), I just dont respond to such things anymore and never leave my things in the open. Things are never in the backseat when I am driving alone. Have stopped carrying anything valuable (such as large amount of currency in a bag).

[hrman]

As an added precaution, I try not to open the boot in public places in full view. Especially if there is any bag with or without valuables. You never know who is watching and will try to steal from the boot too.

Once, when I had newly moved to Bangalore, my colleague and I had returned from office at around 7 pm. I made the mistake of keeping my laptop bag on the rear seat of his old zen. When we parked it near a church in RT Nagar and came back after 10 minutes, realised the rear right door glass was broken and the bag was missing. The bag did not contain the laptop, perhaps that's why I was a bit careless. But other things like my External Hard drive, house keys, one set of car keys etc was lost. Without a spare key to my house (I had kept this at home :-( )I had to spend the night at my friend's house and get the locksmith the next day to break open the lock at home. Lesson learnt for life.

We complained to the police, but they merely made a NC diary entry and gave us a kaccha receipt advising us to be careful the next time. That was that.

[ShankarG]

Similar incident happened with my father. It was on the jam packed streets of Old Delhi. the front windows were 30% open as it was winter time. One person banged hard with his hand on the right side of the car. With a natural reaction is to turn back and look for, another person immediately put his hand inisde from the other side and fled away with the mobile phone kept in the storage space next to the gear.
Lesson learnt by entire family.

Another incident happened with a cousin in a busy sadar bazar area of old Delhi. He was on his bike waiting for the traffic jam to move and had kept the phone in the shirt pocket. A chap came running, took it out and ran away, all in a flip of a second.
big time lesson learnt again.

Gangs like these have started to employ small kids now who use their tiny hands and try to sneak out items from cars, wallets and bags in Delhi metro.

[DEEPSAM]

Laptops or electronic devices ( company owned and probably insured ) might not be covered under insurance if left inside the car, locked or even in the boot. The all risks insurance policy for laptops excludes losses when the device is left unattended.

[saurabhdadhichi]

In a city or any place else, this kind of risk is always lurking around. What has been supported by various members is that never let your guard down be it in terms of valuables or your own life.

Few advices to be considered always when you are in a car:

- Keep the doors of the car always centrally locked even when waiting for someone or to say when you are changing tyres (I will come back to this later)

- Open only the door lock from where you need to go out (even if the circumstances dictate so). DO NOT turn off the central lock for all the doors.

- Ensure Windows are always up (be it winter/summer) unfortunately. On the positive side it keeps the traffic noise out to enjoy music better & most importantly keeps your belongings and yourself safe.

- Never keep/leave your valuables on the dashboard or in the pockets of the cars (as today's thief are very well aware of the inside of the car as well)

- DO NOT in any circumstances leave your valuables in the car even if its a Laptop. I will not even advice to keep this in the boot of the car. The ONLY safest place for your belongings is when it is with YOU.

- Always appear vigilant, your body language (TRUST ME ON THIS) does give an idea to a THAK THAK GANG/any other thief confidence to try this trick on you or not. So keeping an eye open and vigilant of your surrounding will help save you from this in future.

Now Story time: One of my colleague was changing tyre as one of the type got punctured & while doing the change he had kept the doors not centrally locked. He never ever came to know who & when did the Office Laptop Bag from the rear seat of his car was stolen.

Learning as mentioned above: Keep the doors locked & keep an eye on your belongings all the time. (Though its a pity that what has come to this world that we cant trust anyone but its always better to be safe than to be SORRY)

[stanjohn123]

I never keep more than 10 Rs anywhere inside my car. I also never keep anything that resembles like a ladies handbag or an laptop bag(empty) visible ,because thieves may just break a window thinking that there is something valuable in the bag.

I usually try to keep the bag under the seats or like most I would just keep it in the boot. Still I'm afraid, because if thieves see you keep something in the boot , they may get the wrong idea that we are trying to hide something expensive , in that case they would still break a glass , open the door and open the boot

In short, just don't ever keep anything expensive in your car.

[aashishnb]

Something similar happened to my friend also.

They went for a late night movie at The Hub, at Goregaon West. Since the Lodha building is being built, the parking is now in the open.

When they left the car, they removed their laptop bags and put it in the boot of the still new Honda City. Someone must surely be watching them (I feel the security guards are also complicit most of the times).

When they returned from the movie, they saw the car window broken. So the thieves broke the window, got into the car, opened the boot and took the laptop bag, which also had his home keys. My friend had to change all locks to his home the next day itself.

[humyum]

I have started treating my bag as a passenger whenever I am alone in the car. Its kept in the front with the seat belt tied around it. I never open the car door and if someone is talking or signals something, I only open the window and if I do have to open the door, I park it aside, get out, lock all doors and then start talking.

I have a spanner kept in the front seat back pocket which I check the first thing I get into the car everyday. If I sense something amiss, that's where my hand goes in first.

[GTO]

Amit Gupta caught the gang in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGMRboR5zFs

[DriverR]

Wow, that was a very brazen attempt. The moving traffic and locked rear door saved the driver.

Had a tire puncture recently and had to change the tire on my own around 6pm in the evening. i kept all doors locked and made the change. Kept the keys in my pocket at all times.

There was an attempt of this modus operandi with my mom earlier in this year. My dad had parked the car in the street and gone into a bank. Someone knocked on the window of the car telling my mom that my Dad dropped cash besides the car. My mom grew suspicious as she knew that my dad never keeps loose cash in his pockets, so ignored the knocking. Once my Dad return, she asked if he dropped any cash, and the answer was No. All his cash was in his wallet.

[aditya.bhardwaj]

Just wanted to update on the same topic.

The same thing happened to me a couple of days back near IFFCO Chowk metro station. I was taking a U turn to connect to MG Road ( Road connecting to MG road metro station ). My car was standing still because of heavy traffic and all of a sudden, a person walking with a cell phone in his hand started shouting that i had hit him. He told me to open my windows or come out. I didn't pay any attention as i was extremely tired and didn't want to involve in any sort of altercation. Then another guy started banging the boot of my car. I did not get out or stop and just left.

Mind you, this happened when there was huge police presence as well. I am sure these guys were planning on stealing something.

Please be very careful guys !