Reporting a stolen car 'costly'

Reporting a stolen car 'costly'

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Having a car stolen is a bad experience for most people, but
reporting it to the police is almost as bad.

Hartono, 40, reported the theft of his car in November to the
police. His car had been stolen the night before from the garage
at his house in West Jakarta. A police report is required in
order to claim on the loss from an insurance company.

"The police officers on duty asked me to pay Rp 5 million
(US$555) to get the paperwork done quickly. Otherwise, I would
have to go through all the procedures, which could take two
months to complete," he told The Jakarta Post.

Some haggling followed, and Hartono and the police agreed on
Rp 2.8 million.

And the paperwork has still not been completed.

Farid has a different story. He decided to go through all the
set procedures following the theft of his Toyota Kijang minivan
in September.

It took him two months of traipsing backwards and forwards to
the Jakarta Police Headquarters, plus Rp 1.5 million, just to get
two official letters: the loss report and an order to freeze the
car registration number.

"I paid less than most people as a friend of mine knows some
of the officers there, so they were kind enough to give me a
discount," Farid said.

Indonesian Police Watch executive Rashid Lubis acknowledged
that the non-governmental organization often received complaints
about illicit charges for police services that were supposed to
be free.

"The 'fee' for a motorcycle is usually between Rp 500,000 and
Rp 1 million, just for the paperwork," he said.

For cars, he added, the police normally asked for at least Rp
5 million. "It could be higher if the stolen car is an expensive
one."

This is just for a loss report from the criminal investigation
department, he said.

"Having the registration number frozen by the traffic police
also costs money," Lubis said. "If you ask the police to really
try to find your stolen vehicle, they will usually ask for more
money."

If an autotheft victim is lucky enough, he might actually get
his vehicle back. At a price, of course.

"Usually, the price is about 25 percent of the value of the
stolen car. For example, if your car is valued at Rp 100 million,
the police will ask you for Rp 25 million to get the car back,"
he said.

The police often say that the money is necessary to cover the
costs of the investigation and administration, he added.

But actually, Rashid explained, the money was simply another
source of extra income for the police.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono dismissed the
allegation, saying that the police never demanded bribes from
autotheft victims.

"If there are any police officers who do that, please report
them to the police's internal affairs unit so we can question
them," he added.