TN Man Steals Bike To Take Family Home Amid Lockdown, Later Parcels It Back To Owner

The lockdown, unemployment, and financial distress have caused several people, especially migrant workers, to opt for ways to go back home which they wouldn’t choose otherwise. For example, cycling for thousands of kilometres carrying injured parents is a thing that some have been forced to do. Such is the plight of migrant workers and daily-wage labourers – a section worst hit by the coronavirus crisis.

Similarly, a man in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, who runs a small teashop, stole a motorbike to take his family home to Thanjavur, 268 km away from Coimbatore. However, 2 weeks later, he parcelled the motorbike back to its original owner, reports The Indian Express.

Representational Image

The owner of the bike, Kumar, runs a lathe workshop 20 km away from Coimbatore near Sulur. A police officer revealed:

“Kumar had some pending work at his workshop that day. As usual, he parked the bike outside and was working inside the building. When he came out in the afternoon, his bike was missing.”

Kumar went to a nearby police station to lodge a complaint. But the theft was unregistered because the police were busy with lockdown duty. Therefore, he went to the owner of a building located near the location of the theft and asked for CCTV footage.

Representational Image

The footage showed a man wearing a shirt and a pant, without footwear, fleeing with the bike.

“Someone in the locality identified the culprit as Prashanth, a man who had been working in two tea shops in the area for the past two years. They went to the house where he stayed in the village. But he had vacated home and left for his native place with his family,” said a source close to Kumar.

Representational Image

Kumar tried to track the accused but all efforts went in vain. However, after a few days, Kumar received a call from a nearby parcel service. When he reached the parcel services offices, he was surprised to find his bike parcelled to the address given in his vehicle Registration Certificate.

However, Kumar had to pay Rs 1,400 luggage and packaging charges before taking the bike home.

Image source

This goes on to show how distressed people, otherwise good-hearted have been forced to steal to survive. And there is nothing more heartbreaking than this.

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.