City police investigate four cases of vehicular theft
JAKARTA (JP): City police are investigating four vehicular thefts that occurred in the capital over the last two days and arrested a man on Tuesday who was believed to be involved in one of the thefts.
Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis said two of the thefts involved motorcycles and the other two involved cars. The thefts occurred in North Jakarta, South Jakarta and Depok.
The latest theft was experienced by an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver identified as Erwin, 24, in North Jakarta on Tuesday.
Erwin told the police that the incident started when he was stopped by a man, identified later as Fauzi, 19, on Jl. Raya Cakung Cilincing at about 5 a.m.
Pretending to be a passenger, Fauzi asked Erwin to take him to a certain place. However, before reaching the destination, Fauzi started to strangle Erwin with a sarong.
"Erwin and Fauzi fell off the motorcycle and the chance was taken by the latter to take the motorcycle," Lubis told reporters.
When Fauzi was attempting to run away with the Tornado Suzuki, however, he was halted by local residents who were alerted by Erwin's cry for help. Fauzi was beaten before being handed over to a nearby police station.
Several hours earlier, the driver of a private taxi was found by residents in a quiet area of Kali Suren village in Bojong Gede district in Depok with his hands and feet bound with plastic rope, and his mouth and eyes covered with adhesive tape.
The Kijang van, driven by the victim identified as Haji Heri, a resident of Cianjur in West Java, was stolen by four unidentified men.
Heri told the police that he had picked up four passengers in Bandung who asked him to drive them to Ciputat, Tangerang, after they settled on a price for the fare from Bandung to Ciputat.
"When they approached the destination, however, two of the men threatened him with a machete and an iron bar," Lubis said, adding that the suspects ordered Heri to stop the car.
One of the men forced Heri out of the car and took over the steering wheel.
Separately in Kemang in South Jakarta, an unidentified man made away with a Honda motorcycle, belonging to Kemang resident D. Yuliadi.
According to police, Yuliadi planned to sell his motorcycle and had advertised it in a local daily newspaper.
A man, pretending to be a buyer, went to Yuliadi's house at about 8 p.m. and agreed to buy the motorcycle for Rp 6 million.
"The man wanted to have a test drive and asked Yuliadi's permission," Lubis said, adding that Yuliadi let the man leave his house with the motorcycle, but the latter never returned.
The four vehicular thefts also included the carjacking of a Kijang van from a son of Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri on a street near his family home on Jl. T.B. Simatupang in South Jakarta at about 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
Muhamad Prananda Prabowo was left unharmed on Jagorawi toll road, police said.
Lubis acknowledged that there is an upward trend in vehicular theft, especially targeting lone motorists at night.
"Reports of theft received by the police might only be two or three a day, but in reality I believe the number is much higher," Lubis told reporters.
However, head of the city police's vehicular theft unit Maj. Hengki Kaluara said the number of thefts was relatively less than in previous weeks.
"The number of vehicular thefts increased several days before the Ramadhan fasting month and the Idul Fitri holiday," he said.
During those weeks, reports of vehicular theft reached eight to 10 per day, Hengki said.
He said that suspects of vehicular theft were difficult to arrest because they operated in different areas and used increasingly complicated modus operandi.
He said the number may have decreased, but the quality had increased with the use of weapons and the way the suspects treated the victims, including dumping them on toll roads. (emf)