Car thief in Johor Bahru? Stranger seen prying open car door was just trying to help, says car owner's wife

Car thief in Johor Bahru? Stranger seen prying open car door was just trying to help, says car owner's wife
The man trying to unlock the car door in Pandan Market.
PHOTO: Screengrab/Facebook/SG Road Vigilante

Was he an opportunistic car thief or a good Samaritan whose actions were simply misunderstood?

A video posted on Facebook by SG Road Vigilante on Monday (April 11) showed a man who seemed to be tampering with a car door of a Singapore-registered car at Pandan Market in Johor Bahru (JB).

It is unclear what tool he was using from the video clip although some netizens suggested that the man was using a kind of ruler to unlock the car door.

"Beware JB Pandan Market," the accompanying caption added and some netizens were quick off the mark to speculate that the man was a car thief. 

One netizen posted that the car driver "must be put something exepnsive [expensive] in the car that the theif [thief] can see" while another wrote "where are all the jokers who say they wont get robbed now".

[embed]https://fb.watch/ckFvj7ChuW/[/embed]

However, other netizens quickly responded to say that's not the case, with one Facebook user Hamidah Mohd posting that her husband was in Pandan and had accidentally left his car keys inside the vehicle which had an auto-lock function. 

A man, who was working at the nearby car wash, had offered to help, the woman said.

Hamidah said: "Please don't misunderstand his good intentions. There's no car-breaking incident happen [sic]."

Tens of thousands of people have travelled between Singapore and Malaysia ever since the the land border reopened on April 1, 2022

The Johor police had in Nov 2021 responded to viral social media posts claiming that snatch thieves were targeting Singaporeans when they crossed the border to Johor Bahru when it reopens.

The police had urged the public not to believe viral statements on social media and to verify the information received, clarifying that crime in JB has fallen over the years, reported CNA then.

chingshijie@asiaone.com

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