Two men arrested for hijacking Rp 24m cash

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta police yesterday arrested two men for allegedly hijacking Rp 24 million (US$10,985) in cash which was just withdrawn from a bank for a private firm's payroll.

West Jakarta police head Lt. Col. Made Mangku Pastika said that the incident took place on Jl. Meruya Ilir, Kebon Jeruk, at around 11 a.m. when two employees of PT Listrindo stopped at a repair shop to fix a flat tire on their car.

"The employees did not realize that two people on a motorcycle took the money easily from the other side of the car," Pastika said.

Luckily, he added, a number of local residents saw the robbery and were able to describe the two suspected robbers and their motorcycle.

Based on a report made by one of the witnesses, police immediately put out an all points bulletin.

The two were later netted on their Yamaha Alpha motorcycle on the ring road in Cengkareng.

They were identified as Agung Wijaya, alias Lan, 28, a resident of Pasar Rumput, South Jakarta, and Ahmad Rozak, 34, a resident of Pluit, North Jakarta.

As yet there has been no report as to what happened to the money.

Based on preliminary questioning, the two suspects admitted they had watched and followed their victims leaving the BII- Intercon bank parking lot in a Kijang minibus.

"Before their maneuver, the suspected robbers overtook the minibus and spread nails on the street in order to puncture the tires," Pastika said.

The two also allegedly confessed to having tried but failing to carry out two similar robberies on customers of the same bank on Dec. 12 and 15.

Most of their targets were customers with large amounts of cash on their hands, Pastika said.

The modus operandi has been used by many criminals in the greater Jakarta area. The most popular locations for such crimes are quiet and dimly lit streets. (bsr)