Impersonator of bomb squad officer sought

JAKARTA (JP): Police are searching for a man who impersonated an officer from the bomb squad and asked for money from the management of an office building in South Jakarta.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that the man had created a phony letter and pretended his unit had been assigned to temporarily guard the building.

"The man has ruined the police's image because we never charge the management or owners of buildings rocked recently by false bomb threats," he said.

Many buildings received threatening phone calls informing the occupants that bombs had been planted. After the bomb squad looked into the claims all turned out to be hoaxes.

Aritonang said it was the first time his office had received a report from building management about a bomb squad officer saying he was assigned to secure a venue and asking for money.

He said the building management of the South Jakarta office building reported Tuesday that they were visited by a man who claimed to be a member of the bomb squad unit.

The management later reported the incident to police to check whether the assignment was genuine, he said.

Aritonang said the letter of appointment was fake.

"This mischievous person is unbelievable. He apparently doesn't understand a thing about police matters because he used the wrong symbol and gave the wrong rank for the names he used in the letter."

The suspect had used the National Police Headquarters' symbol on the letterhead but typed Jakarta Police Headquarters' address underneath, he said.

The fake letter was signed by the commander of a fictitious bomb squad, Lt. Col. Nurhadi. Both the squad and the commander do not exist, the spokesman said.

Aritonang said the bomb squad worked on an on-call basis.

"Please note that the bomb squad is deployed to search a building only if we receive a report from the management or another party about a bomb threat."

He said his office deployed a different police squad to guard some office buildings, like banks, especially at a time when there were many bomb threats and rumors of riots were spreading.

According to the management, the suspect, who wore civilian clothes and talked and behaved like a police officer, had not returned after his Tuesday visit was politely turned down, Aritonang said.

He strongly rejected an allegation that such soft acts of extortion were often committed by members of the bomb squad, who were kept busy handling dozens of bomb hoaxes a couple of weeks ago.

"The allegation that the calls were plotted by the squad itself to enable it to search for the fictitious bombs and later ask for 'exertion money' from the building's management, was made by certain people who wanted to disgrace the police." (cst)