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CAR thieves have made clean getaways in places other than a car wash.
In November, Ms Claire Gwee, 29, had her 18-month-old Mitsubishi Colt Plus stolen at Aeon Tebrau City Shopping Centre, a 20-minute drive from the Causeway.
She had parked her car at the shopping centre's basement carpark.
On 18 Sep, Singaporean Khalid Shikh Abdul Rahman had his Honda Civic stolen from the basement carpark of Jusco Tebrau, a shopping centre.
Some car thieves have resorted to violence too. In 2007, parang-wielding robbers ambushed Singaporean Fareed Hassan in Johor Baru by ramming the back of his car.
It later led to a 45-minute beating session after the robbers found out that Mr Fareed, who was then 28, had only RM10 ($4.50) on him.
The armed men later fled with Mr Fareed's $40,000 car and valuables worth $3,000.
Still, the Malaysian authorities have assured Singaporeans that Johor is still a safe place to visit.
In a 2006 news report, statistics compiled by the Johor Police showed that in recent years, car thefts involving Singapore cars have been negligible.
Mr N Parameswaran, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Singapore, had then said: "In 2004, of the 1,381 cars reported stolen in Johor, only 33 (2.39 per cent) were Singapore-registered cars".
The following year, only 52 (3.7 per cent) out of the 1,394 cars reported stolen were Singapore-registered.
In January and February 2006, of the 264 car thefts reported, only three were from Singapore, he said.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
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