LAHORE: Gawalmandi police have arrested a two-member motorcycle theft gang following action taken on secret information.
According to police, the arrested suspects were involved in incidents of motorcycle theft in different parts of the city. The suspects would steal motorcycles parked in streets and residential lanes and make off with them.
During the operation, police recovered a stolen motorcycle, illegal weapons, mobile phones and cash from the suspects’ possession.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Naeem and Gul Faraz. Police have registered cases against them and initiated further investigation.
Motorcycle theft is the highest-volume property crime in Lahore, and by a wide margin. The reason is arithmetic: motorcycles vastly outnumber cars on the city’s roads, are the principal means of transport for lower-middle-income households, and are — by design — easy to move.
A stolen motorcycle can be lifted bodily by two people without being started, loaded into a small van, and be out of the district within minutes. Steering locks provide limited resistance. Most machines carry no immobiliser and no tracker.
For the owner, the loss is severe out of proportion to the vehicle’s book value. For a salaried worker, a delivery rider or a student, the motorcycle is the means of getting to work or to class, frequently purchased on instalments and rarely insured. Theft converts a routine commute into a daily expense the household cannot absorb.
The recovery of a single stolen motorcycle in this case is typical, and it illustrates the difficulty. Stolen machines are disposed of quickly through one of three routes: sale intact in another district or province with forged documentation; dismantling for parts, which are untraceable once separated; or use in further crime, since an untraced motorcycle is the preferred instrument for snatching offences.
The recovery of illegal weapons alongside the motorcycle is the detail investigators will focus on. Property crime and armed street crime in Lahore are frequently committed by the same individuals, and a weapons recovery opens the possibility of linking a suspect to unsolved offences through ballistic comparison.
Police advise motorcycle owners to use a secondary disc or chain lock in addition to the factory steering lock; to park in monitored or lit locations rather than unlit residential lanes overnight; to record and photograph the chassis and engine numbers and keep them separate from the vehicle; and to consider an inexpensive GPS tracker, now widely available.
Owners are also urged to report thefts immediately rather than searching privately for a day or two first. Delay is the single greatest obstacle to recovery, because within hours a machine can be dismantled beyond identification.
Buyers of used motorcycles are advised to verify registration records with the Excise and Taxation Department before purchase. Possession of a stolen vehicle, even acquired in good faith, results in its seizure.
The suspects have not been convicted and are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
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