Fired employee tries to rob gas station

JAKARTA (JP): Angry at having been suspended by his boss, a senior employee at the busy Semanggi gasoline station on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta led a robbery with two accomplices at his place of work place on Sunday evening.

The suspended worker, Irwan, 32, was caught at the scene by his colleagues and handed over to police at the nearby Jakarta Police headquarters, but his two accomplices escaped with Rp 78 million (US$8,965) in cash, according to staff at the gas station.

When contacted on Thursday, the city police were unable to report any progress in the search for the other two robbers.

"We don't even have a report on that robbery here," said an officer in the information unit.

The local media reported that staff temporarily closed the gas station at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday while three tankers unloaded petrol. While the station was closed, a blue Suzuki Escudo carrying three people arrived and drove onto the concourse.

"I was immediately suspicious because we had erected signs announcing the temporary closure at the entrance," recalled an employee named Jasri.

Irwan, who had been suspended since mid November, ran from the car into the gas station office, opened the safety box with a key and bundled the day's takings into a bag.

An employee identified as Wawan Hendriawan followed Irwan into the office and confronted him. Irwan punched him and a fight then broke out. The suspended employee drew a sickle, forced Wawan into submission and began to bind him up with a rope.

At this point, Jasri walked into the office to see what was happening, sized up the situation, grabbed a broom and hit Irwan on the hand.

While Jasri and Irwan were busy wrestling, Irwan's accomplices rushed in to the office, grabbed the bag and sped off in their car, leaving Irwan behind.

After beating Irwan unconscious, his former colleagues dragged him 100 meters to the nearby police headquarters.

Irwan revealed the names of his accomplices during interrogation and city police detectives were assigned to track them down. They have been identified to the public only as Ach. and R.

Irwan, a father of three, told police that he earned only half of his Rp 500,000 monthly salary during his suspension.

"I was angry because the punishment was kept in place right up to Idul Fitri," Irwan told police. (bsr)