Shoe Stealing Big Business
Posted on 18 February 2010 by LynThomas in Society
Shoe stealing from well known shrines across India is a thriving business. The major shoe bazaars are in Kurla or Dedh Gulli. The bazaars teem with bargain hunters as they search through the stolen wares of more than 20 hawkers, in Kurla alone.
The thriving stolen shoe-markets flourish under the nose of police, because people in India do not take the trouble to report stolen shoes. They are of the belief that when shoes are stolen, it takes away their share of bad luck.
With no complaints, the police merely fine the hawkers of the boot bazaar under Bombay Police Act for creating chaos in the area. This is in spite of legal shoe-shop owners doing everything they can to get the hawkers closed down.
Across India footwear is stolen from all the well known shrines, including the dargah of the sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Shirdi, Siddhivinayak and Ganesh temple in Titwala. The hawkers work in partnership with tour operators running long distance luxury buses, which are used to smuggle the stolen shoes from around the country.
A hawker associated with the boot bazaar, requesting anonymity, revealed, “Every agent manages to steal five to ten chappals and shoes a day from the shrines he visits. Every Wednesday, the stolen shoes and chappals are dispatched to the bazaars via luxury buses.”
A South Korean has taken advantage of the custom to remove shoes when entering mourning rooms, as mourners are well known to have worn their best pair of shoes. As a sign of respect they are left outside the mourning room’s doors.
Park would remove his shoes before entering mourning rooms, pretending to be one of the mourners. When he left he would leave his old shoes behind and step into a more expensive pair of footwear.
Park was arrested after his warehouse was raided by the police. They discovered 1200 pairs of shoes, carefully stored in sizes, ready for sale in a second-hand shoe business in southern Seoul’s Sueso district.
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[...] Visitng a well known shrine in India, could be the cause of losing you best shoes, when they are left outside. Shoe stealing from well known shrines across India is a thriving business. The best known shoe bazaars are in Dedh, or Gulli Kurla. The bazaars are thronged with bargain hunters searching through the stolen wares of more than 20 hawkers, in Kurla alone. The thriving stolen shoe-markets flourish under the nose of police, because people in India do not take the trouble to report stolen shoes. They believe that when shoes are stolen, it takes away their share of bad luck. Across the world in South Korean a man took advantage of the custom to remove shoes when entering mourning rooms. As a sign of respect they are left outside the mourning room’s doors. Park would remove his shoes before entering mourning rooms, pretending to be one of the mourners. When he left the rooms he would leave his old shoes behind and step into a more expensive pair of shoes. To see how many shoes he stole click here… [...]