Coconut thief in Payyannur lands in classmate’s Bengaluru CCTV net

A coconut thief in Payyannur, Thamban, has odd ways. A repeat offender, he usually takes an autorickshaw to transport stolen goods. When autodrivers refused, he takes a bus and as a token of kindness, he gifts two coconuts to the conductor. Everything was going smoothly for the thief until he set his eyes on the plot of Kanal Govind, a native of Payyannur, who is an IT professional based in Bengaluru.

Kanal owns nearly four acres of land planted with coconut and areca trees. Yet, despite the yield, he has rarely enjoyed harvesting ripe coconuts or seeing the red husks of areca nuts. For nearly two decades, a thief has been reaping the yield before he could. The accused turned out to be none other than his former classmate, Thamban.

Tired of repeated thefts, Kanal had installed a CCTV and linked it to his mobile phone. Recently, he received alerts from a motion-detection CCTV camera installed on his property. At the time, he was in Bengaluru, working in the IT sector and living there with his family, leaving the house unoccupied. The footage showed Thamban entering the property and taking coconuts. A police complaint followed as produce worth nearly ₹50,000 was stolen. Payyannur Police traced the suspect using CCTV evidence and arrested Thamban. He was later remanded into judicial custody. Police said similar complaints of missing coconuts had been reported in the locality. 

Kanal says the thefts have been going on for nearly 20 years, dating back to when the property was managed by his father. Thamban is not picky. “It doesn’t matter to him whether it’s day or night and he will even take shovels or clothes drying outside," says Kanal.

“He only studied till Class 2. He was reluctant to attend classes and would often leave after lunch. Though we were classmates for just a year, we stayed friends. I did tell him many times not to come to my property during his stealing sprees, but he didn’t listen,” recalled Kanal.

This was not Thamban’s first arrest. He was arrested just a few months earlier for stealing and spent six months in jail. However, on release, he returned to his old ways. “Since he keeps stealing from all these neighbourhoods, people started rounding him up and beating him. But that is not a solution, right? What if something happens to him? Still, there is a limit to people’s patience. He has stolen nearly ₹1 lakh worth of produce, which is a big loss to us. That is why I started filing police complaints,” Kanal said. 

According to Kanal, Thamban does have family property but cannot access it due to disputes with relatives. “He doesn’t even consider it stealing; he thinks he is just taking. He lives in a small house filled with coconuts and husks, so at night he sleeps outside people’s homes. Even when reprimanded, he continues,” Kanal said.

Even the employee hired by Kanal’s family to look after the property struggles to stop him. “If the caretaker chases him while stealing coconuts, Thamban throws stones at him.”

Thamban also does not gatekeep. When caught, he will admit what he did and explain how he stole the produce, where he sold it and how much he received.