Extortion

Extortion

From Kompas

I was driving on Jl. Swadharma in Petukangan Utara, West
Jakarta on Oct. 8, 1995, at about 5:30 p.m. At the Jl. Ciledug
Raya intersection, my car was suddenly blocked by another car.
Then a big man got out of that car and told me that I had just
hit someone.

Surprised, I asked if I really had. He forced his way into my
car and asked me to be responsible for the accident. Between
half-belief and fear, I was forced to go back to the place, where
a man had been waiting and his hand seemed to be injured.

The injured man and another guy who helped him joined us in
the car. Now there were four of us.

I suggested that they should go to the hospital. But the
injured man, who confessed that he was a policeman in plain
clothes, asked me to take him to the Police Hospital in
Kramatjati. But later he just wanted me to take him to the clinic
in Swadharma. When I was about to accompany the man to enter the
clinic, the big man stopped me and asked me to settle the matter
amicably. Not long afterwards, the injured man got out of the
clinic and said the doctor could not treat him believing that the
bone was broken. The man wished to have his hand and the broken
bone massaged in Cimande, West Java. It would take about four to
six months to recover and the cost was Rp 2.4 million to be
shared by both of us.

Being panicky, I agreed to his deal, and I had to take out my
money at the Jakarta Design Center, in Slipi. But I got only Rp
500,000. To fulfill their demand they took my car radio. The man
then asked to be dropped in front of the Center, while the two
other men were still in the car. Finally they got out at Jl.
Palmerah, only 100 meters away from the Slipi intersection,
robbing me of my wrist watch and the car speaker. Is this a new
style of extortion?

Name and address

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