Hide the onions: Sky high prices cause wave of robberies

With onions literally costing the earth at Rs 100 per kg, it makes sense to keep them under lock and key. And while you’re at it double the guards, because robbers have added onions to the list of precious items that can and will be stolen.

The Times of India reports that a shop in Ulhasnagar in Thane district was robbed of onions worth Rs 18,000. The report said that five gunny bags full of onions had been stolen, while potatoes had remained untouched.

And this is by no means an isolated incident. In August there were reports of how a truck carrying 9000 kg of onions was hijacked on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway by two men who then drove off with the loot. But it didn’t end in tears. The Rajasthan police chased them down and caught them after a couple of hours.

“I have never heard of anything like this before,” Bhawani Singh, a police officer at the Shahpura station, said in a phone interview to NYT’s India Ink . “But onion prices are so high, it makes sense.”

And in Rajkot, Gujarat, authorities are being extra vigilant. According to a report in the Times of India , “CCTV cameras which till recently had been monitoring activities only during daytime, are now kept working during nights too in order to prevent thefts. Similarly, in Mahuva APMC, additional security guards have been deployed at key places to keep the onion stocks safe”.