This man in Hyderabad stole only mopeds, 23 of them!

Hyderabad: Mopeds became a craze for Mohammed Fareed when he did not have enough money to buy one. And then, he stole one. Sold it. And there began a moped theft series. In the last two years, Fareed, who was finally nabbed by the Nacharam police on Monday, stole 23 mopeds, and that too, all the same model.

Fareed, 40, a resident of Mallapur, used to eke out a living by selling fruits and vegetables by pushing around his bicycle in Nacharam and its surroundings. It was then that he saw other vendors selling vegetables by attaching a basket to a moped. And he liked what he saw. Though he initially planned to buy one, the money gods turned their face away, and then, according to the police, Fareed saw a TVS XL moped parked near a house, with the owner leaving the keys on it.

“Fareed took away the moped and after using it for a few weeks, sold it for Rs.10,000 and used the money for his expenses,” Nacharam Inspector T Kiran Kumar said, adding that after that, in a span of around two years, Fareed stole 23 mopeds from different areas in Hyderabad and its suburbs. All 23 were TVS XL mopeds.

“He did not know how to drive a motorbike and hence found it comfortable to steal only TVS XL mopeds. He targeted vendors near vegetable and fruit markets and sold each moped for Rs.10,000 to people without any documents,” the Inspector said, adding that Fareed was produced before court and remanded in judicial custody.