Bag with valuables worth Rs 10 L stolen at airport

BENGALURU: An engineer flying out of Kempegowda International Airport with his wife and 10-month-old baby boy wanted to grab a quick bite before boarding the flight at 11.50pm.The couple walked towards an eatery in the terminal ’s outer curb area, picked up two trays of food and were walking towards a table when a stray dog lunged at them. The unnerved engineer and his wife managed to gather their wits and shoo away the dog.Praveen (name changed), the engineer, said the stray dog was drawn by food they were carrying. “They speak about maintaining hygiene and security near the airport. You can see the number of stray dogs in front of the passenger terminal. With outlets selling vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, these dogs thrive on leftovers. When they don’t get anything, they will obviously target passengers,” Praveen told TOI.Stray dogs are a huge problem not only in the city but also at its premier international airport, notwithstanding the claims of the operator, the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), that they have enough measures in place to check the menace.A housekeeping staffer stationed outside the terminal said stray dogs have been thriving on the premises for a long time, but there have been no dog bites as far as she knew. “But they do scare away people frequenting the eateries,” she said, adding that they are active at night. She claimed the leftover food is usually cleared immediately, but there are times when dogs pick them up even before they are removed from the tables.A BIAL spokesperson said, “At Kempegowda International Airport, we have all the requisite measures in place to curb dog menace within the airport premises. We do our best to ensure visitors or passengers are not troubled by the dogs.”A 62-year-old retired government official alleged that his bag containing Rs 10 lakh worth of valuables, including two iPhones, was stolen at Kempegowda International Airport on Friday.Police have lodged a case of theft based on the complaint lodged by Govinda Reddy, a resident of Jagadish Nagar near HAL, east Bengaluru. Police said Reddy and his wife were returning from Canada where they visited their son and landed in KIA at 2.03am. Reddy’s son-in-law was in the airport to pick them up. The duo pulled their baggages in two trollies and began loading the bags into the car. One bag was missing within a span of three minutes and was suspected to have been stolen by miscreants.In his complaint, Reddy claimed the stolen bag had two iPhones, four gold chains, one baby gold chain, two pairs of earrings, three watches, 180 Canadian dollars and a pair of eyeglasses worth around Rs 10 lakh. “We are checking nearby CCTV cameras to identify the suspect,” a police officer said. TNN