20 cars recovered from car thief, accomplices

The city police were baffled by the series of car thefts for over three years. They were left clueless due to the ingenuity of the thief. Inquiries revealed that Sivachandran had used the original keys of the cars and also developed a device to steal them. He sold them to his accomplices S Arif (34) of Pudupet and S Syedbasha (47) of Broadway in Chennai. The duo changed the chassis number and engine number of the cars, prepared forged registration and documents and sold them. 

Police sources said, earlier in 2014, Sivachandran, a car mechanic, was arrested by Vadavalli police in connection with a car theft and burglary case. After his release, his interest turned towards cars. He used to break into houses, when the occupants had gone out of town, take away the car keys and drive away the cars. When the vehicle owners began to take away the keys with them when they are out of town, the car thief developed an ignition device that helped him sneak into any car and drive it away. 

As car theft cases were mounting, a special team collected CCTV footage from houses and commercial establishments in Vadavalli area and identified the car thief as Sivachandran. He was secured on Saturday evening, resulting in the recovery of more than 20 cars. This also resulted in the police detaining his accomplices in Chennai.