Infamous five: Men take joyride in stolen taxi to satisfy paratha craving in India
They robbed a cab driver to fund their trip to village of Murthal in Haryana, said cops
How far would you go for a food craving?
Well, if these five men from the Indian state of Haryana, who stole a taxi in pursuit of parathas (stuffed wheat flatbread) for dinner, are anything to go by, then the answer is - quite far!
The local police station in Nangloi, received a complaint from a taxi driver that his vehicle was stolen after some young men had booked it through Ola, an Indian ride booking app. Apparently, a short distance into the ride, they attacked the driver and threw him out after taking his wallet, too.
A police official told Indian news agencies: "When they reached near Rajdhani Park, the men riding in the car started beating the driver and overpowered him. They robbed his two mobile phones, wallet and threw him out of the car. Accordingly a robbery case was registered at Nangloi and investigation taken up." Reportedly, the phone they had used to book the cab was also a stolen one.
Once they had thrown the driver out of the stolen taxi, halfway through the journey, the motive of the crime was revealed. They started arguing about which was the best place to go to eat parathas. Initially they had planned to go to the nearby village of Murthal for its famed parathas but then part of the group decided to extend the trip to Shimla, in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh. A journey of few kilometres had extended to a distance of several hundred kilometres.
Finally, hunger got the better of them and the five ended up having dinner in the stolen taxi, after picking up food from an eatery in west Delhi's Paschim Vihar area, police said. They then abandoned the vehicle in a secluded part of New Delhi.
But, the police managed to track down the foodie criminals and all of them were arrested. They eventually confessed to the crime.