Stolen car traced within hours using mobile app

R Vasudevan (63) of Royapettah, the owner of a popular restaurant chain in the city, employed R Karthik (27) of Tirunelveli as his car driver on Tuesday out of sympathy that the latter was an orphan and did not have a proper job.

On Wednesday evening, Vasudevan asked Karthik to drive him to the Forum Mall in Vadapalani for shopping. After dropping Vasudevan at the mall, Karthik drove away in his employer’s Hyundai i20. Vasudevan, after waiting for an hour, approached the Vadapalani police for help around 9.20 pm. Since Vasudevan had left his phone in the car, it became easier for the police to trace Karthik.

The police used a mobile application -- Find My Phone -- to find the car moving on the East Coast Road. The police chased the vehicle and intercepted it near Kalpakkam around 12.45 am on Thursday. Karthik was brought to the station around 2 am and the car was handed over to Vasudevan. Karthik was booked under Section 381 (theft by servant) of IPC and remanded him in judicial custody. Vadapalani inspector G Kannan and sub-inspector Boopalan were appreciated by the higher officials for their swift action toarrest the accused.