'Bajing loncat' arrested

BANDUNG: Four street criminals operating along the north coastal roads were arrested and thousands of car tires they had recently stolen were seized, police said.

West Java Police detective chief Col. Soejono said on Monday that the criminals, locally known as bajing loncat (jumping squirrels), were apprehended in an operation on Sunday evening on the roads around Subang.

The suspects, identified as Kardi, Ahfi, Albert and Franki, all are at their 30s, were caught when robbing a trailer transporting 1,300 IRC-brand car tires, Soejono said.

"Two of the criminals, Kardi and Ahfi, stopped the trailer at Patok Besi, Jati Sari, Subang. While two others were waiting in a car. Pretending that they wanted to go to a certain place, Kardi and Ahfi asked the driver Puji Suhartono for a ride. On the way, however, they forced the driver to give up the steering wheel," Soejono said.

The driver, who was in the truck's cabin with his wife and four-year-old child, was helpless, when the criminals turned the truck back to Karawang where they unloaded the tires, Soeyono said.

The driver, along with his wife and child, was taken to the Pulogadung bus terminal in East Jakarta and given bus tickets.

The four are now in police custody. (43/sur)