The Bike Thieves

From my childhood, I have been fascinated with motorcycle or motorbike or just bike. I used to collect pictures of all the famous brands of bikes with all their fancy shapes and sizes. Large posters would adorn the walls of my room.

If I would see a fancy bike on the road, I would stop to gaze at it. A bike zipping past me would make me to halt and observe it's graceful move. My friends thought me to be crazy. Not that they were not fascinated but not to the extent I was.

I grew up, completed my education and was eager to earn my money at the earliest to buy my first bike. I ensured that I would join such a job that would require to zoom around my city on a bike. I thought a sales executive job would need the service of a bike to connect to my clients. So I became a sales manager. 

For becoming a sales person no fancy degree or qualification is needed. Only the quality to pitch a product and acquire clients is the trick. I was good at selling, I observed and with my home grown skills I did farely well. I got my promotion and a good raise in my salary. But it was not enough to buy a good new bike. So I thought of buying a second hand one at a discounted price and wait for some time to own a prized motorbike. 

A good opportunity awaited for me and I changed sectors after discussion with experts. I chose financial sector over general sales of a FMCG Company although I learned from the latter. In the financial sector my type of sales pitching did lot of help and for two consecutive years I good promotion and even better compensation. 

Now I could afford an entry level four wheeler but I decided against it. Because, basically I was into sales and the outside world was my work area rather than sitting at a desk 9 to 5. Managing and parking a car during office hours in the city region becomes a big challenge. So I opted for a good nimble bike. Because a bike would help me focus more on business rather than wasting valuable time in managing car parking. 

Now there was a problem of sorts here. The parking slots were so full of bikes that locating your own vehicle in a sea of vehicles was an undesired challenge. One of my friends suggested and I took his idea and purchased a micro transmitter and put it in the tool box. Like a radio collar is used to track a wild animal and study his habitats, now I could find my bike easily amongst a melee of bikes even in the dark. 

This innocuous decision came as such a boon that I got it's results within a few weeks. 

In recent times we were hearing a lot about bike theft. Many goons from neighbouring states were involved in this racket . Bikes were stolen, their number plates switched overnight with fictitious numbers and changed colours by a fresh coat of paint. Then these were sold off in the grey market at jaw dropping prices to ignorant purchasers. Police was in search for these culprits and trying to recover the bikes. 

Never had I imagined that I would also be at the receiving end one day. 

I had gone to meet a client at a newly opened Post office one day. There was not too many vehicles parked outside as being a new office, customer footfall had just picked up. I concluded my deal with the client and went out to retrieve my bike to find it gone. 

I had known that these thieves were so adept at duplicating keys that I used to tie my bike's front wheel with a thick chain. But this time I was in a hurry that I overlooked this exercise. The thief had done the wicked deed. 

For a trifle of a second, I was just shattered. My dream, my love, the result of my hard work just evaporated into thin air. I cursed myself for being too complacent. I was undecided as what to do then. 

Then I took a deep breath and slowly composed myself. I could trace my bike through the micro transmitter. It could still be tracked. 

I went straight to the Police station. I made a formal complaint. There I had a friend and told him about my loss. Then my police friend suggested we give the thief a chase on his bike by tracking through the radio transmitter. 

The tracking was active as the transmitter was emitting continuous signal. We reached almost two kilometres of the thief. But he remained elusive. He was moving pretty fast and reached the outer edge of the city. 

At the city outskirts there was heavy traffic as there were many trucks one beh

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ind the other. Then I remembered the truckers were on a strike so there was a cluster of trucks blocking one side of the road. So it was difficult to give chase. 

Our chase continued for couple of hours more and we had moved into the countryside our city left behind. 

The sun set and night fell soon. Our bike and the thief were far from being apprehended. But I was able to receive powerful signals from the radio transmitter. Then the thief entered the forests and at some point it stopped. We thought what should be our action now. 

Just then we found a nice hotel and decided to stay back and not venture into the forest in the dark. The thief may be armed and he may having company how many of them we could not tell. It would be unwise to go ahead. 

We stayed in the hotel for the night. Till the time I went to sleep I was tracking the emissions releasing from the transmitter in my tool box. I had connected it with my mobile phone alarm sound. 

Early next morning as the thief started to move my phone alarm rang. We got alerted and were ready in a jiffy. 

Very soon we were on the road trailing behind the thief by about two to three kilometres. The long line of trucks stranded by the strike now started to move. Probably their strike was now off. There was now heavy traffic and movement was slow. 

We kept following the signal. Sometime later we reached the border of our state. Then we had to halt and speak to the base outpost and take help from the Police force of the neighboring state. We were directed to meet the nearest Police Station. We lost some valuable time explaining and getting resources. An armed constable on another bike accompanied us in case there was danger. 

In between the signal had become weak meaning the distance between us had increased substantially. The greater part of the second day our team of two bikes continued to give the chase. 

Now we were approaching the international border. It was now make or break. If my bike crossed the international border then it would be lost forever. The constable on the second bike called up the border outpost and informed about the theft. He told them to verify all the bikes going across and hold them up for some time so that we could cover the distance. 

In about an hour our team reached the border. There was a chaos developing there and quarrels could be heard. The bikers were getting annoyed for unduly being held there without proper reason. We reached and the border police who had been alerted now told us to scrutiny the bikes held. There was some fifteen to twenty of them. 

I was depending on the signal emission from my bike. So I started the verification with my Police friend. Finally I detected the sound from one bike but it was of different colour than mine. Then I opened it's toolbox with my bike keys and caught the thief red handed. 

In just one night it had been painted in a different colour though it had been done in a very slip shod way. But I could recognise it on minute scrutiny. The driver noticing our inattentive ness towards him tried to give the slip but the constable with us caught him by the collar and gave a tight full five finger slap. The thief was temporarily dazed. 

Then when he could gather himself he asked us why we were manhandling him. He said that it was his bike and he produced it's papers. 

They were all forged as usual. But they were done so swiftly and they could be passed off on cursory glance. I was amazed to see the 

expertise of these thieves. 

However, I was finally overjoyed to see my bike. But still there was some formalities to be completed before getting it. This thief apprehended by the name of Chand said that he had bought from some one named Dharam. From the details received this Dharam was soon brought into the net. He said that he had bought it from one Iqbal. This Iqbal was the thief who had stolen the bike from the Post Office and ridden it to the forests and given another colour to the bike by giving it a different paint. 

Iqbal was also apprehended. With the help of those caught the big gang of bike thieves came to the fore. 

To conclude, I was finally overjoyed to get my new bike back. I thanked my radio transmitter for saving my soul. The bike I sent for servicing to get it's original colour back.