Gated societies emerge as new parking spots for stolen vehicles in NCR

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Gated societies in NCR cities like Ghaziabad and Noida are increasingly emerging as hideaways for stolen vehicles. The incident at T&T Homes in Sidharth Vihar of Ghaziabad last month highlighted the issue when residents spotted a suspicious Honda Jazz without a valid society sticker occupying a parking spot, The Times of India reported.

When security guards and residents attempted to identify the owner, they eventually located Vijay, a Delhi resident, who informed them that the car had been stolen from a parking lot in the capital. CCTV footage later revealed a group of unidentified men driving the vehicle into the society, parking it in a secluded spot, and leaving the premises after changing their clothes in the lift.

Stolen cars lying for months in NCR housing basements

As per the report, police acknowledged that this was far from an isolated incident. Recent records indicated that vehicles stolen from Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, and even Lucknow were often discovered parked for weeks — sometimes months — in the basements of residential towers. Many of these cars were later traced to robberies or chain-snatching cases, left gathering dust and hidden from scrutiny until a resident finally raised an alarm.

"With hundreds of flats and constant movement, it is easy to sneak in a stolen vehicle, put a society sticker on it, and leave it parked indefinitely," a senior police officer was quoted by TOI as saying. The problem is fueled by the misuse of digital entry systems, outdated parking logs, and weak tenant verification practices.

"There are towers with over 1,000 flats. The RWA often does not update its parking records. It's practically impossible to know which vehicle belongs to whom," Rajiv Mumar, president of an Indirapuram RWA, told the newspaper.

Apps are widely used to manage visitors, but many societies fail to update vehicle records or cancel old parking stickers when ownership changes.

Bhupendra Nath, an AOA member at SG Grand in Raj Nagar Extension, was quoted as saying, "A car sold months ago might still have access to a society's premises because the old sticker has not been cancelled. Tenant verification is also inconsistent, making it hard to track who really owns which vehicle."

The threat isn’t merely theoretical. In one instance, burglars used a car parked in a society basement as their getaway vehicle after a robbery — a vehicle that had been lying there for more than three months without attracting attention from residents or guards. Police in Noida and Ghaziabad said they are now intensifying their response.

ADCP orders crackdown on abandoned cars, two-wheelers

According to Noida ADCP Shavya Goyal, local police stations had been asked to identify and list all abandoned vehicles in their areas. Old cars and two-wheelers left for long periods will be checked against transport and crime records to verify their ownership and ensure they have not been used for illegal activities, the report added.

Special teams comprising beat constables, traffic police, and RWA representatives will conduct door-to-door inspections, documenting details of suspicious vehicles and cross-checking them with official databases. Any vehicle with unverifiable ownership will be seized, she said.

The drive will be rolled out in phases, starting with major societies in central Noida and gradually extending to Greater Noida West, industrial clusters, and the Yamuna Expressway belt. Police will also issue public advisories, urging residents to report any abandoned or suspicious vehicles.