one of my friend had the misfortune of having his parked bike(around midnight, parked on the main road, albeit under street lights) go up in flames a few months back and it was a sad spectacle to see the burnt out shell as well as the poor who was in and out of shock for a couple of days.
after the usual police FIR (which listed the reason as accidental fire due to short circuit)and insurance claims, he got the claim money and promptly bought himself a new bike. he now takes extra care to park the bike only in a safe place(locked compound/indoors or where some bystander is around.
unusually, few days later there was a similar case in the same neighbourhood as also in several other areas in the city. the police have been re-opening all these old cases and they seem to be on the lookout for some psychotic individual/group/groups who is upto this mischief.
so people who park their bikes or cars in the lanes especiallyat night or outside compound walls beware!
another strange happening which needs highlight is that most cars that are parked in offices, (especially in the IT corridor-OMR,GUINDY,ADAYAR) are being scratched out by some miscreants on a regular basis, i personally have attended to nearly 8 such cases where cars(both old and new) have been damaged this way. what is frustrating is that the scratches are too deep(beyond the base coat) and in all the cases cuts across at least 3 panels (doors, rear qtr panel, front fender or bonnet,roof,doors- which means that you connot fix these scratches with COM paint or similar quick fix touch ups). almost all of these damages have happened in closed and security manned campuses which do not allow outsiders that easily,(except cabbies and contractors,maybe).
another new problem for which i too, have been a victim twice, is getting scratched out in standing traffic. on two occassions, i was surprised (both times)by slightly over-middle aged guys who squeezed past in standing traffic and as they exited,put their foot down on the ground and tilted their bikes so that their side box or footrest/silencer left a deep scratch on the car. sure enough with standstill or crawling traffic there is no way that you can stop or outrun the jerk!..and in the second case, i saw the guy actually slow down to see my reaction in his rear view mirror before scooting off!! both times these guys joined in front side lanes just before the traffic signals, so i know that i did not antagonise them in any way earlier in the stretch of main road i had come from, to earn their wrath!….a couple of my buddies who also bought new cars recollected having come across similar cases..any ideas on how to tackle this menace?