Hey, despite what The Economist says, we think Jakarta is generally a pretty safe place to live.
Well… except for the occasional sword wielding biker gangs roaming the streets trying to rob innocent motorcyclists at blade point in the middle of the night.
Such an incident happened in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, right in front of the offices of East Jakarta’s mayor.
The victim, a 30-year-old man named Ivan, said a gang of six criminals tried to rob him on the dark, poorly lit road in Cakung.
“I was just going home from my girlfriend’s house, when by chance I rode my motorcycle by the mayor’s office. When I got to the area around Pulogebang 3, other motorcycles started to follow me,” Ivan told reporters on Friday as quoted by Merdeka.
Suspecting he might have been targeted by criminals, Ivan hit the gas and tried to outrun them. Ivan slowed down around the Mayor’s office to make a turn, but the criminals caught up with him, brandishing machetes and samurai swords and ordering Ivan to stop.
“Once they showed me their weapons, I immediately stepped on the gas again. They had difficulty chasing me,” Ivan said, as quoted by Merdeka.
Heading towards the Jalan Raya Penggilingan-Jalan I Gusti Ngurah Rai Milling-Jl I Gusti Ngurah Rai overpass, Ivan managed to finally escape his pursuers.
“Maybe I was lucky to be able to get away from them,” Ivan said.
There is a notorious lack of street lighting in the area in front of the East Jakarta Mayor’s office. The Head of the East Jakarta Energy Department, Tuti Kurnia said crime was rampant in that area of Cakung. He said the local government tried to install new lights, but every time they did they were disabled by unknown saboteurs.
