Cops clueless two days after video of thak thak gang out
More than 48 hours have passed since a Delhi resident uploaded a video of thakthak gang members stealing a cell phone from his car on a busy Delhi street but police are yet to make a breakthrough. The dash cam recording of the men caught in the act has since gone viral on Facebook. Till Monday evening, the video had been shared over 8,750 times with hundreds of Facebook users claiming they had fallen victim to the gang’s unique modus operandi.
Not uncommon in Delhi, Thak thak gangs knock on car windows – the name thak thak derived from the sound they make on tapping the car’s windows — to divert the attention of the occupants. They engage the occupants in conversation by alleging either that the driver ran over their foot or that the car has a flat tyre.
The gang members also sometimes puncture car tyres to distract the occupants and get them out of the car.
The video shows a man stopping Awini Ambuj Shanker, a Golf Links resident, who was driving the car, near AIIMS in south Delhi. The man knocks on the left window reprimanding Shanker for rash driving and claims that he had been hit. The victim is seen talking to the man after rolling down his window. Meanwhile, another man knocks on the driver’s window. While the driver’s attention is diverted, the man on the left side steals the phone and makes off. Though the victim later filed a case at the Hauz Khas police station and released the photographs of the gang members on Facebook, police are yet to make an arrest.
In a similar incident, a businessman was duped on August 18 while returning home with his wife. The couple was robbed of their laptops at Lado Sarai near Mehrauli by men who first stopped their car by puncturing it.
“I was returning to Gurgaon and was in the rear seat with my wife when a man in another car signalled us and said that someone had punctured our car. A motorcyclist behind us asked us to drive the vehicle ahead but the puncture was big so we stopped the car there. It happened when there was busy traffic at around 7.30pm,” the businessman said.
The man said that while he was fixing the car’s tyre with his driver, his wife, who was inside, suddenly stepped out complaining that there were some fumes in the car. “Our driver also checked inside and started coughing. Within seconds, we saw a man stealing the laptop after putting his hand from the driver’s side. The man then fled on a motorcycle that was waiting for him,” the businessman said refusing to be identified.
The victim said that when he approached the police and shared his ordeal, he came to know that many other had also faced similar incidents. “Even police told us that such cases are reported on the stretch and the 100 foot road. It is scary. Many office goers take this route to Gurgaon. There are also many who carry cash at the wedding venues here,” he said.