Last month, IANS, a news agency reported that a man in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district stole a bus owned by the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation since he couldn't find any other way to reach his village. The following day, local cops launched a search effort and found the stolen bus from Palakonda depot in a nearby village.

This is one of the many instances of vehicles being stolen, and figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), an agency operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs suggest that 190 state buses were stolen in 2021. Of these, 104 were found.

During the same time period, the truck segment, which is also included in the category of heavy vehicles, recorded 3543 thefts, of which 1341 were later recovered.

These are only a few instances demonstrating how size is immaterial to auto thieves, even though a sizable portion of their stolen vehicles are ultimately found. A total of 190 state transportation buses were reported stolen in 2021, of which 104 were found by investigators, according to the most recent data from the. During the same time period, the truck segment, which is also included in the category of heavy vehicles, recorded 3543 thefts, 1341 of which were later recovered.

Similarly, in the Light Motor Vehicles (LMV) group, which includes automobiles and jeeps, there were 17490 incidents of vehicle theft. However, only 4407 units were detected within the same time period. In addition, 5845 three-wheelers were stolen of which 2336 were later found.

A total of 209,960 motorcycles and scooters were reported stolen but only 56,509 of those could be recovered, making this vehicle category the one that had the most thefts. Overall, 242,158 automobiles totalling around Rs1654 crore in value were reported stolen in 2021. With a detection rate of just under 27 percent, just roughly 66081 of the total units were recovered.

While the race between vehicle thieves and sleuths continue, a total of 325200 units of motor vehicle theft remain still undetected.