The latest incident in the police’s escalating battle against motorcycle thieves took place yesterday in North Cikarang.
The police arrested two at a house in the Kampung Baru neighborhood of North Cikarang on Thursday morning.
Both suspects, Endar (39) and Yadi (34), tried to escape from the police. Neither got very far because police shot both of them while they were trying to flee.
North Cikarang Police Chief Yudo Haryudo said the suspects were found thanks to the statements of one of the criminals’ victims, Abdul Haris (31) who saw his Honda Vario stolen by the two thieves on Wednesday morning.
After interrogating the victim and witnesses at the scene, police received information that the perpetrators were hiding in a rented house.
Armed with that information, the police surrounded the house. When they broke through the door, the two suspects, who had been watching television in the living room, tried to escape through the back door. Police officers on the scene immediately shot them in the legs, causing them to fall to the floor.
“We were forced to immobilize suspects with hot lead, as they tried to escape the arresting officers,” said Yudo today as quoted by Tribunnews.
Yudo said the two thieves worked as a team, one playing lookout while the other stole the bikes. The police chief said the criminals would sell the stolen bikes to a receiver in Khanewal for Rp 2.7 million each. Police are still trying to find the receiver.
The two thieves face possible prison sentences of up to seven years.
