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Shoe stealing from well known temples across India has become a thriving business. The major shoe bazaars are in Kurla or Dedh Gulli. In Kurla alone the bazaar throbs with bargain hunters, as they search through the stolen wares of more than 20 hawkers.
Because people in India do not take the trouble to report stolen shoes, the stolen shoe-markets thrive and expand right under the nose of police. The majority of the people hold the belief that when shoes are stolen, it takes away their share of bad luck.
The police merely fine the hawkers of the boot bazaar for creating chaos in the area, under the Bombay Police Act. This is in the face of legal shoe-shop owners doing everything they can to get the hawkers shut down.
Shoes are stolen from outside all the popular shrines right across India, including the dargah of the sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Shirdi, Siddhivinayak and Ganesh temple in Titwala. Tour operators running long distance luxury buses, work in partnership with the hawkers. The buses are used to transport the stolen shoes across the country.
“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” said a hawker, requesting anonymity, who is associated with the boot bazaar.
Across the world a South Korean man has taken advantage of the custom of leaving shoes outside, as a show or respect, before entering the mourning rooms. Most mourners are dressed up and wear their best shoes.
Park would take off his shoes before entering the mourning rooms, pretending to be one of the mourners. When he left he would step into a more expensive pair of footwear and leave his old shoes behind.
The police arrested Park after his warehouse was raided. They found 1200 pairs of shoes, carefully stored in sizes, ready for sale in a second-hand shoe business in southern Seoul’s Sueso district.
About Shoe Stealing Big Time Business
Stealing and reselling second hand shoes from outside holy shrines in Indian has developed into big business. For more information:
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