Theft alert: Take care of your gadgets at Bengaluru airport

BENGALURU: Instances of expensive phones, AirPods and power banks being stolen from security trays, boarding gates and other points at

Kempegowda International Airport

, right under the nose of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, are on the rise.


In November alone, at least four such theft cases have been reported by passengers. In most cases, the items are suspected to have been stolen by those flying to other destinations.

Last week, passenger Stuti Shukla forgot her Apple Watch on a security tray. The watch was traced by CISF personnel, who used CCTV footage and found that another passenger had stolen the watch and carried it all the way to Ranchi.

Purushottam Kumar lost his power bank at boarding gate no. 15 of the departure terminal earlier this month. He immediately alerted CISF personnel, who scanned CCTV footage and found that a man had stolen and taken it to Mumbai airport.

A Twitter user with the handle @TheSmafish wrote on November 25, "My son's pouch containing mobile phone & power bank was stolen from security tray during security clearance today morning! As per security it was picked by a lady who boarded the Bhubaneswar flight (sic)." The Twitter user later posted an update saying CISF personnel were able to retrieve the pouch and its belongings from the passenger, who was caught at Bhubaneswar.

But some passengers were not so lucky. Priyanka Neogi lost her AirPods while travelling out of

Bengaluru airport

on November 23. "They made me take out all electronics and 5 mins later my airpods missing #unbelievable # it's in a pink metallic box (sic)," she tweeted. She is yet to find them.

An inspector working with city police's airport branch pointed out that in October, a passenger's Apple watch was stolen by an employee of BIAL itself, after which an FIR was registered. BIAL did not comment on this incident.


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