If you thought car logos meant nothing, think again! A series of incidents in Mumbai have set the police on their heels. One a fine day, Rohan Desai’s 11 lakh silver Chevrolet emblem went missing. He was disappointed and shared the news with his friends. Imagine his surprise when he found that his friends, too, had faced such incidents in recent times.
Car logo theft is the newest activity making inroads in the crime zone. What makes matters worse is that the thieves are actually young college-goers and even school children.
In January 2009, police arrested 3 schoolboys in Dadar who stole car logos for pocket money. In a similar incident, two teenagers were arrested in Chembur early in February while in May 2009, police nabbed two college students who were stealing a Mercedes car logo in Powai.
“Logos of big cars are often stolen and then sold at Kurla for a decent price like Rs 2,000 to 4,000,” senior police inspector Rajdoot Rupwate said.
Even car showrooms are reporting a surprising trend where the logo maker actually manufactured more logos with the demand rising by as much as 15%.
Police claims that the stolen car logos are sold at lower rates in the grey market, while some are even sold to the car manufacturers. So the next time you purchase a new car logo, you might be buying the one stolen from you.