Private company driver shot in midday robbery

JAKARTA (JP): A serious armed robbery took place when four people snatched US$10,000 and Rp 187 million in cash from private firm employees, shooting one of the victims in the process, at an intersection on Jl. Kebon Sirih near Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

Riding two Yamaha RX King motorcyles, the robbers sandwiched the Grand Civic sedan which was carrying the employees of PT Jayanti. One of the robbers, who wore a jacket, fired his gun to break the nearside front window and snatched a suitcase containing the money out of the car.

The bullet hit the hip of Suhaimi, the company's driver who at the time of the incident allowed his colleague from the financial department, Abun, to drive.

The traffic light was at red when the robbery took place in broad daylight.

"Thank God, the bullet only struck my hip. I don't know what, if they had shot another part of by body," 51-year old Suhaimi told The Jakarta Post at the emergency care unit of Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital after undergoing surgery to remove the bullet.

He said he and Abun were driving back from Bank Central Asia on Jl. Wahid Hasyim, where they had withdrawn the money.

"The robbers had apparently followed us since we left the bank," said Suhaimi, a resident of Jl. Pembangunan V, Central Jakarta.

Scared, he said he had asked the robbers not to shoot.

There were at least two shots fired, with one of the bullets breaking the window, according to Suhaimi.

Nobody in the area moved to help the victims until the robbers made their escape undeterred.

Gambir Police chief Comr. Nurhadi said the police had yet to identify the robbers.

"We are investigating the robbery," he said.

The biggest robbery ever this year took place in mid-March when a group of armed men who posed as couriers robbed the house of Sudjono, chairman of the Indonesian Bar Association (Ikadin), in Depok, south of here, making away with valuables and cash worth Rp 3 billion (US$300,000). (01)