Police arrest member of gang of ax-wielding robbers

JAKARTA (JP): A young man in his twenties was arrested shortly after he smashed a motorist's car window and grabbed the latter's cell phone in a daylight robbery on Jl. Kramat Bundar of Senen subdistrict in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

Widya Novarin was immobilized by a police officer, later identified as Second Sgt. Berli Sirait, who then hastily received support from other motorists and onlookers.

Widya and his three gang members, who managed to escape from the officer and the crowd, were preying on motorists in the area carrying cellular phones when they saw a prospective victim and decided it was the correct time to act as a train was about to pass the nearby railroad crossing which gates were down to prevent vehicles from crossing the tracks.

With backup from his three accomplices and armed with an ax hidden inside his jacket, Widya approached his target, in a Timor sedan, and quickly pressed his face against the car's closed driver window.

"Hey, give me the phone, give it to me," he screamed at the driver, later identified as Zulkifli Anwar, who was with his wife Lidya Ariani, a lecturer at the Psychology School of the University of Indonesia.

According to police records, Zulkifli, an employee of the State Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, was using his cellular phone when the stranger, Widya, screamed at him.

Zulkifli ignored the boy's request. His wife instead shouted back at Widya: "Not the mobile phone. Won't you just take money?".

Widya replied to her request by removing an ax from his jacket, smashing the window on the driver's side and abruptly grabbing the mobile phone, worth about Rp 1.4 million (US$200). He then gave the phone to his waiting friends.

Instead of leaving the victims, Widya apparently intended to give Lidya, who was sitting in the front row beside her husband, a lesson.

With the ax still in his hand, the young delinquent then walked around the car in order to smash the window where Lidya was sitting when sergeant Berli attacked him from the rear.

Other motorists hastily left their vehicles to help the officer. They beat the culprit, neglecting the presence of Widya's three accomplices.

Widya is being detained at the Senen Police subprecinct, pending a further investigation into his alleged crime.

Such an act of a street crime, by ax-wielding gang preying on cellular phones from motorists, has become a trend in the capital since being first recorded earlier last month.

The crime is usually carried out by a gang of at least four people who wait at traffic lights. One of the robbers is usually armed with an ax.

After spotting prospective victims, who are usually female drivers, the robbers surround the car, bang on windows and demand to be given cell phones.

First reports of the crime surfaced in early December in the Rawasari area of East Jakarta.

Ronny S., a Bekasi resident, was driving at 5:30 p.m. when four youths surrounded his car and forced him to hand over his cell phone.

When Ronny resisted, one of the men pulled out an ax from a bag and began attacking his car's windshield. Ronny escaped the attack by maneuvering his car close to other vehicles, beeping the horn and waving a car tool at the attackers.

During the previous day, a similar crime occurred in heavy afternoon traffic on Jl. S. Parman, near the Tomang intersection in West Jakarta. This time, four of seven gang members were arrested after the male victim reported the case to nearby patrolling police officers. (01)