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