Bantul Man Steals Neighbour's Phone to Swindle Rp20 Million

A man brazenly stole a smartphone belonging to his neighbour in Blawong II, Trimulyo, Jetis, Bantul. Instead of selling the device, the perpetrator used it to contact the victim’s acquaintances under the pretext of pawning a truck for Rp20 million.

Head of Public Relations for the Bantul Police, Iptu Rita Hidayanto, stated the incident began when the victim, S (63), a resident of Blawong II, went out with his wife on Saturday (21/6/2026). At the time, the front door of the victim’s house was unlocked.

“A few hours later, the victim returned home and discovered his smartphone was missing,” she told reporters on Wednesday (24/6/2026).

Feeling aggrieved, S subsequently reported the incident to the Bantul Police. Following up on the report, officers conducted an investigation and found that the victim’s smartphone was still active and showing WhatsApp usage activity.

“It turned out the perpetrator was contacting the victim’s friends with the intention of borrowing money urgently. To convince the target, the perpetrator offered one of the victim’s trucks as collateral,” she explained.

Consequently, one of S’s friends, D, responded to the WhatsApp message and agreed to the arrangement. The perpetrator then instructed D to transfer the money.

“The fraud victim then transferred Rp20 million to the perpetrator. The victim trusted the deal because the collateral was a truck belonging to the phone theft victim,” she said.

After transferring the money, D went to the victim’s house to collect the truck. S, who was at home at the time, was confused when D attempted to take his truck away.

“The truck belonging to the phone theft victim was about to be taken by the fraud victim as collateral. The phone theft victim knew nothing about it and was forced to reimburse the Rp20 million to the fraud victim to prevent his truck from being taken,” she stated.

Police then tracked down and eventually apprehended the perpetrator at a boarding house in the Dayakan area, Sardonoharjo, Ngaglik, Sleman. The perpetrator has the initials RDN (27), a resident of Blawong II.

“The perpetrator was arrested yesterday, Tuesday (23/6/2026) in Sleman, because he had been moving from place to place and had already disposed of the victim’s smartphone. Furthermore, the perpetrator turned out to be the neighbour of the victim whose phone was stolen,” she said.

Rita added that the perpetrator is currently being held in the Bantul Police detention facility. For his actions, RDN is charged under Article 476 of the Criminal Code concerning Theft and Article 492 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2023 concerning Fraud.

“The perpetrator is charged with multiple articles,” she concluded.