Chicken thieves giving stall owners sleepless nights

Praveen Kumar | NT

A gang of thieves is giving sleepless nights to the chicken stall owners on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Road. After the chicken consignments are unloaded near a shop early morning, and the vehicles supplying them move to other shops for delivery, these gang members close in and steal the birds from the cages. Interestingly, they are active only during Sundays, a day of brisk sales, and the gang moves around in luggage carrying vehicles.

Chicken stall owners are now approaching the police to put an end to this menace, which is burning a hole in their pockets.

“The gang operates only on Sundays, when the chicken shop owners order more chicken anticipating a good demand. It is the usual practice of dropping the boxes with chicken in front of the locked chicken stalls early morning, and a calls are made to confirm the delivery. The shop owners arrive after sometime and collect the boxes. The accused have observed this pattern and are stealing the whole order by taking them away in luggage vehicles. A series of such thefts have happened in the last two Sundays,” H.M. Satish, who works for a chicken stall, told NT. One theft has happened at the Sapthagiri Chicken Centre, near the women’s polytechnic college on the Bengaluru-Ramanagar Road and the other at Bidadi. Both the shop owners have approached the police.

“The theft at the chicken centre in Bidadi has been captured by CCTVs installed at the shop. Two men are clearly seen in the video, they load chicken boxes into their vehicles and flee. The images of the accused are being circulated among the owners of the other chicken stalls to obtain leads,” said an officer on part of investigations.

After a rise in cases of such thefts, chicken stall owners are asking for a late delivery and are accepting the orders only after the shop is opened.

“In both the incidents, the accused have stolen more than 300 chickens of various breeds. We are discussing with the chicken stall owners so that such incidents are not repeated. We suspect that the chicken could have been sold by the accused for a cheaper price than the market value,” Satish added.

The police have registered cases of theft (IPC 379) against the unidentified accused and are further investigating.