Thief nabbed after drugging couple and stealing Mercedes

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta police have captured an automobile showroom employee believed to have stolen a Mercedes- Benz sedan from a rich couple after drugging them.

"As far as I know, no one has ever used this modus operandi as far as vehicular theft is concerned," Maj. Charles Marpaung, chief of detective section at the Central Jakarta police precinct, told reporters yesterday.

The suspect, identified as Jimmi Joni Wantah, 34, is a resident of Depok who has been working at the Tiga Berlian Motor showroom for the last three years. He reportedly told the police during the interrogation that he had never committed a theft prior to the one that took place on Tuesday.

"The suspect told us that he resorted to crime because he was in need of cash, since his company had recently lost Rp 40 million (US$ 18,500) due to his negligence, and the company had ordered him to pay it back," said Charles.

The owner of the "Baby Benz" sedan, identified as Gina Margiana, 28, and Kuswardi, 40, are restauranteurs.

Joni, who knew the couple's address after reading an advertisement on a daily about their plan to sell their 1987 Mercedes, visited the Kuswardi's at their home in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. During the meeting the suspect introduced himself as Yudi to Kuswardi and said his boss was interested in buying their car.

Before he left, the suspect asked Kuswardi to meet his boss at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel on Tuesday.

Kuswardi and his wife agreed to the suspect's request and met Joni was pretending to be waiting for his boss at the hotel's lobby at 1:30 p.m. The suspect then asked the couple to come along to his room on the tenth floor, where he said, "they could watch the television and enjoy some drinks while waiting for his boss."

There, the couple was offered orange juice which was prepared by Joni beforehand. One of the four glasses of drinks, being half-empty, was claimed by Joni to be his drink.

Halcion

"The couple, unaware that the drinks had been drugged by Joni with the sedative 'Halcion,' drank the juice and fell unconscious within a half hour, " Charles said.

Joni then took the ignition key, vehicular document from the couple's bag and made away with the car.

After waking up at around 4 p.m., the couple realized that they had been cheated by Joni and immediately reported the case to Menteng police, who then sent the report to Central Jakarta police precinct.

Soon after he received the report, Charles ordered his men to check out all showrooms in the mayoralty and found the car on the following day at the Manggala Motor showroom on Jl. Musi, Central Jakarta.

The showroom owner said that Joni had sold the car at Rp 120 million but he hadn't paid it yet, saying he needed time to check out the originality of the auto registration.

Late in the morning, Joni phoned the showroom's owner, telling him to deliver the payment to someone at the Sarinah shopping center on Jl. MH. Thamrin.

The showroom owner, suspicious at the request of Joni, sent two employees together with a detective.

Upon seeing the three, Joni called back through public phone to the showroom, wondering why there were three men, saying two were enough.

The showroom owner said two persons were not enough to protect such plentiful cash and told Joni to reclaim his car if he did not agree with the procedure.

Joni came to showroom at around 4 p.m. and was soon arrested by Charles and his men who had been waiting for him. (jsk)