Coronavirus: Indian teenager in Mangalore defies lockdown to smuggle friend into flat in a suitcase

It is not just in the movies that people are smuggled in suitcases because a teenager in Mangalore, India, did exactly that when his apartment complex banned all visitors due to the coronavirus outbreak.

With a strict lockdown in place in India, people are finding innovative ways to violate the movement restrictions. A teenager aged about 17 years, stepped out of the building on a scooter, with a huge suitcase and returned with his friend inside of it.

According to Indian English-language daily, The Times of India, the incident occurred at around 2am on Sunday, April 12.

Reportedly, when the suitcase was being taken into the apartment complex, it moved. The people at the apartment grew suspicious and eventually told the security guards and the building association. The suitcase was opened and the people were shocked to find the teenager’s friend inside it.

Reportedly, the teenager lives alone in the apartment his family told the police, according to Times of India.

The teenager also told the police that he had made several requests to the building authorities but representatives said that such appeals were never made.

The parents of the two youngsters were called to the spot and a case has been reportedly registered at Mangalore East police station.

As the news emerged online, social media users were quick to react to the unusual case.

Tweep @dpkBopanna asked: “To what extent will you go to meet your friend during #lockdown?”

Some like user @dibakardutta_ even called it an ideal friendship: “'Friendship goals' prove costly for a 'bored' minor in Mangaluru after he smuggled his friend in a suitcase, amidst Cororonavirus lockdown.”

User @ImtiazMadmood had a poem for the duo: "'Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment. Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.'”