Dude, where's my car?

Dude, where's my car?

From Republika

On March 11, my family and I went to the Safari Park in Cisarua, Bogor. We parked our car in front of a ticket booth near the cable cars. At about 1 p.m., we found that our car was gone. We asked the man in charge of the ticket booth about our 1996 dark blue Grand Extra Kijang van. He answered that about five minutes earlier, two men had gotten into a dark blue Kijang van whose alarm was going off. Unfortunately, he had seen no reason to become suspicious.

Not far from the ticket booth, we saw some patrolling security guards and told them about our missing car. They immediately contacted the security post to block the way to the park exit. We were shortly told that the security guards had seen a Kijang van whose alarm was ringing pass the security post toward the park exit. Again, the security guards were not suspicious. More strangely, the vehicle was able to leave the Safari Park without presenting a parking ticket, which was still in our possession, and with a ringing alarm still.

We immediately went to the Safari Park management. However, they seemed bent on washing their hands of the matter. They said this was the first such incident for the park. We then requested that they file a report with the police. Still, we heard nothing even though we waited there until nighttime. The park's management even had us going back and forth between different places, all of which was of no use.

Before going home, we reported our stolen car to the Cisarua Police. The police said no one had contacted them about a stolen vehicle. They also stated that this type of thing had happened several times before. What annoys us is that no effort was made by the Safari Park security guards to chase after the thieves, even though the road from the park was congested at the time.

TRI RUSTOMO

Jakarta