Fell victim to a puncture scam: Here's 1 simple way to avoid my mistake

I saw that the guy was applying the same trick to an Innova owner.

BHPian abhishek_hch recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Recently my one-and-a-half-year-old Kushaq, driven 12,000 km had a puncture. The instrument cluster showed a pressure loss warning right as I stepped out of my society and I had parked the car in my basement. I was using my air-filling machine to maintain the pressure after every 2-3 days.

After a week or so, I went to a tyre shop near Kundanhalli gate to get it fixed. I was asked to wait for 45 minutes then I left. I drove around looking for a puncture guy and finally parked at one between Hoodi metro station and the Kia showroom in Whitefield. The guy asked me to rotate the wheel. I went in and did that. After I came back, he showed me a nail in the tyre and also, 3 small punctures on the side wall. I was a bit stunned to see the side wall punctures & was left wondering how it happened. Anyway, I got them fixed and went home thinking that the tyre would now need to be immediately replaced (pic attached).

However, I kept thinking of it. It didn't fit in my mind that a tyre with four punctures kept a significant amount of pressure for 2-3 days. I went back and asked him if he did some foul play with the car - he denied it.

A week after this, I started for my morning run late, around 9.30 am. I usually cross that place on my run. As I approached the place, I saw that the guy was applying the same trick to an Innova owner. The Innova guy was rotating the wheel and lo! This guy had placed a Muslin cloth on the tyre and made 2 punctures on it right in front of my eyes. I don't carry my mobile while running else would have filmed it!

I told this to the Innova owner. The puncture guy simply refused. Same case - one nail and two punctures made by this guy. I asked the puncture guy to test the tyre. He started throwing normal water on it. When I asked him to throw water with detergent, he said this was sufficient. Even the Innova owner started getting impatient. I left and continued with my run. I found a Kirana shop near the Hoodi metro station and bought a pouch of shampoo. Came back and asked the Innova guy to ask the shop owner to throw it at the tyre after mixing water. He did that and lo! the punctures were there where I was saying.

The car owner got angry and a verbal fight ensued. I kept telling the guy to lodge a police complaint and that I would be the witness. He kept on hanging it on fire. So I left for the run. While I was returning, I saw the Innova owner go. He had kept the puncture guy's phone. Perhaps they had some agreement about the replacement of the tyre. I was super angry with this person. I helped him to protect others but he took care of his own case and ran away.

Anyway, I learnt a lesson - never let anyone come near your tyre without them being in complete sight. I hope my experience helps everyone. Knew a bit about tyres, so changed tyres but for the more gullible junta, this can be the difference between life, injury or perhaps even death.

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