I urge all my readers to spread this and give warnings to as many people, especially those who are in Bangalore and similar metro cities, those who drive late night, or even during day time, AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO TRAVEL TOWARDS WAYANAD, MYSORE, CALICUT, KANNUR, OOTY OR KASARGOD BY CAR FROM BANGALORE.
Location: Just after 1 kilometer from Mandya towards Mysore
When: 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm
What: An unsuccessful car robbery attempt/or a robbery attempt on us
Location: Just after 1 kilometer from Mandya towards Mysore
When: 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm
What: An unsuccessful car robbery attempt/or a robbery attempt on us
The door beam which was damaged by the stone thrown at us
This unpleasant event happened to me and my friends on 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm, while two of my Friends (Binoy and Nirmal) and me were driving towards Wayanad to cast our Vote on the next day for the State Assembly Election in Kerala. We started from Electronic city in Bangalore at around 8:00pm, and just after crossing the city of Mandya, this event took place. Binoy was sitting behind and Nirmal along with me on the front seats. As soon as we crossed the city of Mandya and reached a place outside the town where there are no street lights or buildings or anything nearby, the rear window glass on the left side shattered with a loud bang noise, the safety glass granules got spread all over the rear cabin seats and on Binoy.
The place was very lonely, and nobody is in visible highway section in the car light. I on the driving seat could not understand what really happened, because the road was pretty clear and straight with two lanes on each side with no chances of hitting anything and no vehicles in rear and forward 1 kilometer. When we understood what happened and when I slowed down the car to stop, Binoy asked me NOT to stop the car and told that he is OK to be in that condition to travel a few kilometers until we reach a well-lighted safe area.
We traveled another 5 kilometers towards Mysore and stopped in front of a Petrol pump with enough street lights and people nearby. We checked the car and could not find anything other than the glass broken. We speculated theories that either it happened due to the harmonic vibration of the glass at around a speed of 80~90 kilometers at that time, or the glass got broken because of a manufacturing defect itself, but why with such a big noise? We called our friends an asked if Ford does have any such bad history. I remembered about a review that I read 3 years back before buying this Ford Fiesta, where somebody wrote that his Fiesta’s rear glass broken and shattered all of a sudden without any reason.
We cleaned the glass particles using some extra cotton floor mats that were kept in the boot of the car, and decided to resume and cast the vote and come back, but not to cancel the trip and go back to Bangalore.
Later we stopped for refreshments at Hunsur, just before taking a turn towards Gonikoppal (Gonikuppa). When we again inspected the car, I found the mark of something hit on the beam of my car where the rear door wind shield is fixed. Then we understood that it was a big stone thrown against the wind shield, to make us stop and to make a victim of another sad robbery. We remembered about a couple of news articles about high way robbery in similar manner on Mysore – Bangalore state highway.
Few good things that happened:
1. The stone did not hit on the front wind shield which could have made us stop the car for sure.
2. A hit on the front windshield may cause me to lose driving control which may cause a severe accident on such high speeds.
3. Binoy asked as not to stop, until we reach a safe point far away from the location.
4. I was not traveling with my family alone.
Few bad things:
1. We could not alarm the police (100).
2. The police system is not an easy approachable thing at the location.
3. Even though my brother asked me to log a complaint in Mandya Police station, I hesitated to do that thinking of the unnecessary problems that may be created along with it.
A few things that we learned:
1. Never stop in such highways on any dark areas for anything
2. If possible, never stop the car on such situation, and try to reach a safe destination if possible.
3. Carry a small weapon like a knife.
4. Carry a pepper spray in you r car and keep in in the shelves on the door easily accessible to the driver and not seen by others.
The place was very lonely, and nobody is in visible highway section in the car light. I on the driving seat could not understand what really happened, because the road was pretty clear and straight with two lanes on each side with no chances of hitting anything and no vehicles in rear and forward 1 kilometer. When we understood what happened and when I slowed down the car to stop, Binoy asked me NOT to stop the car and told that he is OK to be in that condition to travel a few kilometers until we reach a well-lighted safe area.
We traveled another 5 kilometers towards Mysore and stopped in front of a Petrol pump with enough street lights and people nearby. We checked the car and could not find anything other than the glass broken. We speculated theories that either it happened due to the harmonic vibration of the glass at around a speed of 80~90 kilometers at that time, or the glass got broken because of a manufacturing defect itself, but why with such a big noise? We called our friends an asked if Ford does have any such bad history. I remembered about a review that I read 3 years back before buying this Ford Fiesta, where somebody wrote that his Fiesta’s rear glass broken and shattered all of a sudden without any reason.
We cleaned the glass particles using some extra cotton floor mats that were kept in the boot of the car, and decided to resume and cast the vote and come back, but not to cancel the trip and go back to Bangalore.
Later we stopped for refreshments at Hunsur, just before taking a turn towards Gonikoppal (Gonikuppa). When we again inspected the car, I found the mark of something hit on the beam of my car where the rear door wind shield is fixed. Then we understood that it was a big stone thrown against the wind shield, to make us stop and to make a victim of another sad robbery. We remembered about a couple of news articles about high way robbery in similar manner on Mysore – Bangalore state highway.
Few good things that happened:
1. The stone did not hit on the front wind shield which could have made us stop the car for sure.
2. A hit on the front windshield may cause me to lose driving control which may cause a severe accident on such high speeds.
3. Binoy asked as not to stop, until we reach a safe point far away from the location.
4. I was not traveling with my family alone.
Few bad things:
1. We could not alarm the police (100).
2. The police system is not an easy approachable thing at the location.
3. Even though my brother asked me to log a complaint in Mandya Police station, I hesitated to do that thinking of the unnecessary problems that may be created along with it.
A few things that we learned:
1. Never stop in such highways on any dark areas for anything
2. If possible, never stop the car on such situation, and try to reach a safe destination if possible.
3. Carry a small weapon like a knife.
4. Carry a pepper spray in you r car and keep in in the shelves on the door easily accessible to the driver and not seen by others.
A lucky escape indeed... i think you should have reported the incident to the police... anyways its good that you shared the experience in the blog so that people may learn :-)
ReplyDeleteDear Abins,
ReplyDeleteToday I learned from my friends that dialling 100 from our mobile is more than enough to just report it to the police. That is much more hazzle free than going to a police station to hear strange excuses like 'report to that police station, or go to the police station where you started the journey, and ....'
Some people said that they had very good experience by doing that in some cases like "a road block during an agitation..."
Lucky you!!! I've heard of 2 incidents of stone being thrown at buses - My sister and brother in law were in the bus traveling from Wyanad to bangalore; and my brother in law got injured by the broken glass.
ReplyDeleteThe second instance occurred when my friend was traveling from Kannur.
After having read about your experience, I recalled these instances..and its really very very scary.
Take care when you drive with your family.
Very interesting. something similar happened to me, but I never realized this was an attempt to robbery. I was coming back from hebbal towards marthahalli late in the night with my family. I am sure I was clocking close to 80 kmph and (possibly) a broken glass bottle came flying from nowhere. Hit my bonnet, grazed on my windshield, bounced on the roof before flying off. After reading this article, I am glad that I did not stop to check what had happened that night. I still have some marks on my hood with this incident... hmmmm.... Lucky eh !
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSunitha, it is really scary to know that this is a becoming more common. God’s grace, the attack flopped. Do you remember where exactly it happened to your sister and brother in law? And how did they survive the situation without stopping the car, even after getting injured? If you can share these experience in a little bit more details here, it will be a lot helpful to all those who love to drive hometown. I am trying to get this article noticed by all my friends who drive and I am asking them to spread within their friends circle, awareness itself can help a lot. The attackers may target not only the valuables, but the car itself and our life itself may be threatened in that kind of robbery.
ReplyDeleteRam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience here as comments. It looks like this is the modus operandi for most of the robbery in and around Bangalore. That is, make us stop or make us start an argument while we are trapped unknowingly. The situation can sometimes be of lesser harm like the purses and mobiles robbed away, and it can go to the other extreme of the car or ours and our beloved’s family’s life being challenged. Awareness and precaution is always better.
If more and more people can share their experience here, we can know about more affected areas.
One this is clear, these people lurk in darker areas, so that immediate attention or help is not there for sure, and we people live in a Metropolitan area where we do not care for others, so even somebody sees that we are getting attacked, nobody is going to help us. So let us be precautious.
Not only in the dark, but in broad day light, there is news of people getting robbed around Electronic City, where I live currently. Two of my wife’s colleagues were victim of a different kind of robbery, where one’s car was followed in bike stopped saying that he hit and ran a bike and has to return to take the victim to hospital, the moment the car is stopped and they guys outside got access they were targeted of all the bad things like being forcefully taken to ATM to take out the money to the robbers and things like that. My wife who works in Clinigene got an official broadcast communication/warning from the admin regarding this kind of robbery happening around Electronic City, as well as about Chain Snatchers in the service road near the landing place of the elevated toll road towards Hosur.
It is better to avoid night driving…
ReplyDeleteNaveen,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, but circumstances does not allow me to stop traveling at night. I remember one of my friend said about his co-worker who will never drive in Night, he goes for public/private transport buses/train for night Journey.
My current worry is about the commutation back to home from office. Am coming too late, and that too through a lonely highway.
--Deepu George V
The blog is useful for drivers and riders.
ReplyDelete