chennai laptops are going missing with disturbing regularity on interstate buses with as many as 12 cases reported to the koyambedu police in two months police have had no success in their attempts to stop the thieves and have so far not caught any of the culprits a police officer said the thieves appear to be targeting travellers on the bengaluruchennai and hyderabadchennai routes we think the thieves travel along with the other passengers and escape with the laptops as soon as the bus reaches the city not waiting for it to make its final stop at the bus terminus the officer said karnataka state road transport corporation ksrtc has now decided to fix security cameras in its volvo buses most of cases of laptop thefts took place on ksrtc vehicles few cases of theft have been reported on state express transport corporation setc buses police say we have conducted three meetings with omnibus and government bus drivers and conductors the officer said we advised them to keep a tab on the property of passengers and to keep an eye out on those who attempt to alight the bus early there will be fewer cases of theft on buses if the conductors are watchful the conductors however passed the buck on to the passengers telling police officers that they are not attentive and do not keep their baggage safely in spite of repeated instructions passengers leave their laptop bags on the racks above the seats and sleep till the bus reaches the terminus the officer quoted a conductor as saying they realise that their laptops are missing only when they get ready to alight the police officer admitted that passengers are to blame in some of the cases he said a woman passenger from hyderabad lodged a police complaint in the afternoon at the koyambedu police station because she realised that her laptop was missing only after she got to her hostel room passengers however say police show little enthusiasm in investigating such cases i lodged a police complaint about my laptop being stolen but policemen at the station gave me a receipt for a community service register csr entry and ignored the case completely after that software engineer bharat kumar said when i returned to the police station after a few days to check the status of my complaint they acted like they did not know what i was talking about perhaps police in the state dont care about laptop theft because the tamil nadu government gives free laptops to students he said another police officer said it is difficult to trace the thieves once they get off the bus with their loot name changed