Photo: Illustration
If you were the sort of scoundrel who had and used counterfeit money, you might think a toll road would be a good place to spend your fake cash. After all, most toll booth attendants give you your change back lightning quick – you would never guess they take the time to check if your money is real or not.
One young man seemingly made that assumption while trying to pull a fast one on a toll booth attendant in Podomoro, North Jakarta, yesterday. And he has already paid much more for his crime than if he had simply paid the toll with real money.
Waryono, a 25-year-old driver of a Suzuki APV, attempted to pay a toll attendant with a fake Rp 50,000 bill at around 8:15 am yesterday.
But the attendant checked the bill with a UV scanner and immediately realized it was a counterfeit . She then told the toll gate’s security guard to stop Waryono from leaving.
But Waryono panicked and tried to drive away anyways, almost hitting the security guard in the process.
The security guard alerted the Highway Police. Three cars were dispatched to chase down Waryono and they intercepted him around Cipinang, where he encountered a new problem – a bunch of angry locals who saw a criminal being chased by police and decided to dish out some vigilante justice.
“The perpetrator was beaten by a mob but we managed to secure him,” Jakarta Highway Police Commander Eko told Detik.
After being saved from the angry crowd by the police, Waryono was brought to the North Jakarta Police station for further investigation – particularly to find out where he got the counterfeit bill.
Waryono, for his part, pleaded ignorance.
“I do not know what happened, mas. I had just given the Rp 50,000 bill at the toll gate, I didn’t know that the toll operator said it was a fake, I don’t understand this at all,” Waryono told BeritaSatu yesterday. Which we might believe, if he hadn’t tried to run away while almost running over a security guard.
