Holdup in Cengkareng

Holdup in Cengkareng

From Media Indonesia

On Sept. 6, 1996, a friend and I traveling on public
transportation to our daily jobs were robbed on the road between
Ampera and Grogol around 5:30 a.m.

Three male passengers boarded the van in Cengkareng. Shortly
afterwards, they threatened us with knives. We dared not to make
a move. They took away our watches, neck chains, rings and both
our wallets, which contained money and valuable documents. They
got off in the vicinity of Taman Kota.

My friend and I wanted to report the incident to the police.
The nearest post was in Citraland. However, at such wee hours
there seemed to be nobody on duty. I tried to approach a Trisakti
University guard, who answered: "My duty is to guard the Trisakti
campus only." I understood his point of view. They are on the
payroll of the Trisakti foundation, after all.

I went on immediately to the police post beside Grogol
terminal. Here, I was in for a disappointment, because their
reaction was far from what I expected.

"Oh, the case should be handled by the Cengkareng Police
sector, Sir," the officer told me. "You should waste no time and
go there right away because it happened in Cengkareng district."
However, I demanded that they inform the Cengkareng Police post
before the three robbers could get away from Cengkareng or
Grogol.

I went to the Cengkareng Police post after teaching in the
afternoon. I wanted to prevent similar incidents from happening
in future.

It seems that a great deal of patience is required when
reporting a theft or a stick-up to this police post. Perhaps they
are short of personnel. The funny thing about it was that they
did not bother to ask about the robbers' features, the location
of incident and what was stolen from us. They treated the whole
affair as a case of lost belongings.

I was a little disappointed because we had been told by police
to report a crime right away. But, what about reports that are
not being given proper attention?

SLAMET HARYONO

Tangerang, West Java