Man threatens woman with knife, tapes her hands to seat

SINGAPORE - The street was crowded with people, but their attention was on a lion dance performance.

Perhaps taking advantage of the distraction, a carjacker struck in broad daylight.

When a car driven by a woman stopped nearby, he went up to it, whipped open the front passenger door and jumped in.

Before the startled driver could react, he was threatening to harm her with a penknife. And so began almost 30 minutes of terror for the Singaporean woman in her 30s.

She was robbed of $600, an iPhone 5 and her ATM card. The man even forced her to reveal her card's personal identification number to him. Sounds like another carjacking-robbery in Johor Baru?

No, this happened in Geylang Bahru on Sunday. Two lawyers The New Paper spoke to on Monday could not recall the last time such a carjacking-robbery had occurred here.

They were surprised by what they called a "blatant" and "audacious" act that happened here in front of so many in broad daylight.

The victim's mother, who declined to be named, told Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News that her daughter had gone out to do some shopping on Sunday afternoon.

She stopped her red hatchback at Block 70, Geylang Bahru, next to a market and food centre. She was stunned when a stranger brandishing a penknife got into her car and demanded her valuables.

After she handed them over, he ordered her to drive about 400m to a carpark at Block 57. He then used masking tape to secure her hands to the front passenger seat before fleeing on foot.

The mother said her daughter's ordeal lasted close to 30 minutes as the carjacker had remained in the car for a while, apparently because he did not want her to raise the alarm too soon.

A sales manager, who wanted to be known only as Mr Goh, 32, told Shin Min that he was in the area visiting his mother when he found out about the incident.

He saw a neighbour talking to the victim and found out later that the neighbour had gone to tell her to move her car as it was blocking the carpark entrance.

The neighbour was taken aback to find out the woman had been robbed.

She had managed to free her hands but was in a state of shock.

The neighbour then called the police and the victim's husband. A police spokesman said they received a call around 4.40pm and confirmed they were investigating a case of armed robbery.

TRAUMATISED

The victim had abrasions on her hands and was too traumatised to be interviewed, her mother said.

Shopkeepers in the area who saw the victim told The New Paper on Monday that she looked upset and in shock.

Madam Cheng Soo Fung, 42, who owns an incense shop, said that at the time of the carjacking, there was a lion dance performance at a nearby shop, with more than 30 people watching.

"It was very crowded. Many people were watching the performance. But no one saw (the carjacking)," she said. The police reportedly conducted a five-hourlong operation to gather evidence, leaving the scene only around 9pm.

Madam Marie Goh, 77, a housewife, said: "There were a lot of police officers walking around the neighbourhood conducting spot checks on people." TNP understands that the robber is a man in his mid 40s. No arrest has been made.

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Other carjacking cases

MARCH 2012

Chinese national Yuan Zhenghua, 32, attacked a taxi driver, then hijacked his taxi before running down and killing a Malaysian cleaning supervisor, Mr Chandra Mogan Panjanathan, 34, at the Budget Terminal departure hall at Changi Airport.

He suffered a delusional belief that the cabby would make off with his belongings. He was sentenced to 25 months in jail.

JULY 2010

Goh Kar Wai, then 39, carjacked four vehicles between July 3 and July 30, targeting lone women getting out of their cars at night. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was jailed for seven years and given the maximum 24 strokes of the cane.

AUGUST 2007

Cabby Ivan Loy Keng Yen, then 41, was at Telok Blangah Crescent buying a newspaper when a man jumped into his taxi.

He threatened Mr Loy with a gun (which later turned out to be a toy gun) and drove off.

Mr Loy jumped into another taxi and gave chase.

The carjacker died after crashing the taxi into a wall at the junction of Telok Blangah Road and Henderson Road.

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