A young man got lucky when he managed to steal a scooter from right under its owner's nose but his luck proved short-lived as he met with a road accident just 40 minutes later and an alert traffic policeman impounded the two-wheeler.
By then, passersby had taken the injured vehicle lifter to the hospital for treatment. As things stand, police are trying to trace him.
The head-spinning turn of events unfolded in Jayanagar 5th Block, South Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
CCTV footage shows a lean man wearing a brown jacket and a face mask standing next to a white Honda Active on the footpath. The scooter isn't hand-locked. He checks the steering, puts on a blue half-helmet and reverses the scooter.
Just then, a man carrying a plastic bag walks out of the house. He takes a few seconds to realise what's happening. As he tries to catch him, the suspect accelerates and rides off.
Nearly 40 minutes later, the suspect met with a minor road accident and was taken to hospital. By this time, the owner had filed a police complaint.
A traffic policeman ran a routine vehicle check and discovered that the vehicle was stolen and impounded it, said the Jayanagar traffic police inspector, adding they had transferred the case to the law and order police station for further investigation.
The Jayanagar police inspector said they were in the process of registering a vehicle theft FIR and were also making efforts to trace the vehicle lifter.