‘Catch me if you can’: Crafty thief who stole luxe cars

A 41-year-old serial, intrepid MBA graduate-turned-vehicle thief has been arrested by the city police.

Amruthahalli police who arrested Satyendra Singh Shekhawat on February 10 say he was involved in 21 cases and possibly more. Twenty four-wheelers, including high-end SUVs, and a two-wheeler, all worth Rs 4 crore, have been seized from him.

Shekhawat, a native of Jaipur’s Sushant City, used electronic gadgets and other tools to steal the vehicles.

Police also seized from him 20 manual keys, an Xhorse Dolphin key-cutting machine and extra tools, a dongle, charger cable, Xtool X-100 PAD, a VVDI mini key tool, 13 smart keys, a XTOOL adapter, six mobile phones, a leather hand bag and a cloth bag.

Armed with the tools, Shekhawat would skulk around apartments, commercial establishments and other buildings. When cars stopped, he would get the frequency transferred using Xtool X-100 PAD before drivers could get down and close the door. He would inset the same frequency into a smart key and make a duplicate key of the car.

Shekhawat would return to his hometown and return to Bengaluru by air, this time with the fake registration number of a similar vehicle. Once he stole the car with the forged key, he would take it to an isolated spot, change the registration number plate, leave it in a parking lot and stay in a lodge close by for three or four days with fake set of documents.

He would later drive the vehicle to Rajasthan and sell them to drug peddlers without documents.

Among other ingenuous methods to steal cars, Shekhawat would scan the chassis number of a parked vehicle, input the number into a mobile application, which would display the details of the original key. He would insert the details into a manual key and would use the machine to make a key.

He would also remove the car’s glasses, capture the data below the bearing, and transfer it to a tablet. He would use another application to make a spare key to steal the vehicle.

Shekhawat learnt to steal vehicles on the internet. He began the thefts in 2003, and over the years, became a master vehicle thief and making duplicate keys using mobile applications.

Investigating a vehicle theft case reported in October 2021, cops from Amruthahalli police station camped in Rajasthan for 20 days before swooping down on Shekhawat in Jaipur. He had stolen a Toyota Fortuner parked in the visiting parking lot of Godrej apartment.

As Telangana police visited Jaipur and questioned Shekhawat’s wife. He made her a video call and challenged the cops to arrest him if they can. “Catch me if you can and don’t trouble my wife or other family members,” he told them.

The astonishing range of vehicles Shekhawat stole also include a Mercedes Benz, two Audis, a Toyota Qualis, a Toyota Fortuner, a Tata Indica, a Toyota Innova, a Chevrolet Tavera, a Mahindra Scorpio, a Maruti Swift, a Renault Duster, an Isuzu V Cross and a Honda Activa scooter.

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