Car-jacking on the rise in Sabah

Police are seemingly helpless in resolving the rising number of car thefts in Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Car thefts seem to be on the rise here. According to the local police, they are seeing a consistent number of reports every day but are seemingly helpless.

Many cases are still unresolved until today.

What is suspected however is that the car-jacking is being done by professionals and seasoned hands. They leave no traces and knowledgeable enough to avoid being noticed including by CCTVs, police and their families.

One popular lawyer here, who was himself a victim, believes a syndicate is involved.

The lawyer had parked his Toyota four-wheel in Damai, Luyang and hours later found it was stolen. On the same day, he was told that at least one other vehicle parked in the vicinity was also stolen.

Luxury landcruisers popularly known here as “ninja turtle” or “ninja king” are a favourite of thieves.

Not so long ago, a direct-selling company’s top salesmen also reportedly lost his newly-acquired “ninja” car parked somewhere in town.

Almost all of these theft victims had made police reports immediately but until today there are no traces of the vehicles.

What is believed is that these thieves are part of a network and that they have storage or workshops to house these stolen cars until it becomes “less hot”.

These stolen vehicles are quickly undergo a “makeover” by changing the plate numbers and removing certain accessories like the kangaroo bar and stickers, or adding new ones, including new paints to make it difficult for owners or the police to trace.

According to insiders who know the dirty trade, even with the “new” appearance thieves or their agents are careful and would avoid police roadblocks, and move slowly and in stages from the city to their final destination.

The lawyer who lost his Toyota last week, acting on tip-offs tried look for his car in Keningau and Tenom but returned to the city empty handed.

FMT which went along on this two-day tracking journey was told that most likely the stolen Toyota would be in Keningau or Tenom before being driven to Lawas in Sarawak and finally into Indonesia’s Kalimantan.

An insider told FMT that in the past there had been many such cases and that some kampungs in Keningau and Tenom were notorious as keeping bays for stolen cars, before the cars were sent to their final destinations.

But not all stolen cars make it to Sarawak or Kalimantan, some end up in Kota Kinabalu itself. These cars would have had their engines and parts disassembled and reused to build better and tougher cars and sold to unsuspecting buyers.

It is not known if these cars have legal documents but it is suspected that such vehicles which come much cheaper are used to ply the lesser-travelled roads in plantations, timber camps and in the interior.

One victim who lost twice his same model Toyota trucks few years back, told FMT recently, that the syndicates are emboldened in their crimes because of the failure of police to nab them.

“I am still hopeful that one day I could get back my cars but it has been years and now no more news from the police. Kota Kinabalu became more and more unsafe now,” said Fredoline Edwin Lojingki, a 73 year old veteran activist from Penampang.

Meanwhile another vehicle was hjacked in broad daylight last week in Donggongon in Penampang. This car had a small child in the back seat.
It was believed that on realising the presence of the boy at the back, the thief abandoned the vehicle half-way to his destination.

Luckily the child was found unharmed somewhere near the town.

By Luke Rintod (FMT)