Auto theft in Jakarta reaches alarming level
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Beware when parking your car. Authorities report that 72 cars are stolen every day in Jakarta, or one car every 20 minutes.
Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, said on Wednesday that grand theft auto had reached alarming levels and nowhere was safe from car thieves, even "secure parking lots".
"No place is immune to car theft, especially if the thieves are professionals. So think long and hard about protecting your vehicle with proper security devices, at least to hamper or daunt thieves," Adrianus said during a seminar on street crime hosted by auto insurance firm Garda Oto and Mobilmotor magazine.
Adrianus jokingly included National Police Headquarters among those locations prone to car theft.
Earlier this year, a man was caught attempting to steal a car belonging to a police officer.
If your car is stolen chances are you will never see it again, with less than 10 percent of all stolen vehicles ever recovered.
Through the first three months of this year police have solved 108 of 1,940 cases of grand theft auto, or 5.6 percent of all cases.
Last year there were 6,264 reported cases of auto theft, of which the police solved 427, or 6.8 percent.
"Yes, we find it difficult to solve car thefts," Comr. Dwi Irianto, the head of the auto theft division at the Jakarta Police, said on the sidelines of the seminar.
One of the main problems, he said, is that car thieves are extremely mobile.
"Once they steal a car they immediately move it out of town. They beat us (police) with their high mobility," Dwi said.
The officer also said police did not have an online data system that would allow police departments around the country to exchange information on grand theft auto cases, making it that much more difficult for officers to fight the crime.
Adrianus said the number of cars being stolen might be even higher than the figures issued by the authorities, because many victims were reluctant to file police reports.
"Considering that few cases of car theft are solved, it is little wonder that many people are reluctant to report such crimes to the police," he said.