Tak Tak Gang Strikes Again: Youth robbed of high-end mobile while driving to work on JVLR

A 25-year-old had to face a harrowing time on his way to work on Wednesday morning after two men stole his cell phone in broad daylight under the pretence of an accident in Andheri.

The incident took place around 11:30 am yesterday when the victim, Eshan Pancholi, was driving to work. He subsequently reported the matter to the police and shared the details of the episode on social media to warn others.

The incident:

Eshan was waiting in traffic before Takshila signal on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) in Andheri East, when an unidentified man approached his car and shoved his foot under the front left tyre.

“As I engaged gear to move ahead he pretended to get hurt and started banging on the passenger window and opened the door to hurl abuses at me. Naturally, I was taken aback as to why he opened the door so I asked him in Hindi to move away because I knew it was not my fault,” Eshan wrote in his post.

While he was engaged in talking with the first miscreant, his accomplice approached the car from the right side.

“At this very same instance, the second guy appeared on my side (the driver side) and banged the window with a loud thud. When I turned to see what was happening, the guy on my left slammed the door shut and disappeared and when I turned right the other guy was gone too,” he added.

The confusion over the absurdity of the interaction turned to shock seconds later when Eshan realised that the Bluetooth in his car, which was paired with his cell phone, had stopped working.

The duo had snatched his brand new Samsung Note 8 amidst the chaos and damaged the driver side glass in the process.

The IT professional tried to chase the culprits, but was unsuccessful as they had already jumped the divider and ran to the other side.

Complaint filed:

Fortunately, the driver of the car behind him noticed the commotion and took a picture of one of the accused while he was trying to flee.

Eshan procured the images and approached MIDC police to file a complaint, following which the duo was booked for theft. A copy of the FIR is with Local Press Co.

“We have started investigating the case and increased vigilance on the stretch. We will catch the accused soon,” an official with MIDC police told Local Press Co.

A few hours later, Eshan shared details about the incident on his Facebook page.

“Lesson here is to always keep your doors locked and in an unusual event such as this, never roll down your windows or open the door,” he wrote. The post has been shared over 4,500 times as of publishing this report.

Unsurprisingly, many other netizens took to the comments section to narrate similar incidents that have taken place at either the same spot or in other areas like Sion, Marol, Dahisar among others.

‘Tak Tak’ gang

The modus operandi of the robbers is similar to members of the ‘Tak Tak’ gang, who are known to commit their crime after knocking on the windows of their victim’s cars.

Several small gangs operating in a similar manner, albeit independently from each other, are currently active in the city.

Last week, MRA Marg police arrested four persons from a village in Trichy who had used a similar technique to steal a leather bag from a builder near Bombay High Court in January.

Another faction was active near Crawford Market, from where they had stolen Rs 30,000 and a mobile phone belonging to BMC assistant commissioner of P-North ward Chanda Jadhav in January.

However, five members of the gang were arrested later in the month after they robbed a woman of her gold worth Rs 1.5 lakh near Kalbadevi.