Car stolen in 10 seconds: Other cases of Singapore cars getting into trouble in Malaysia

SINGAPORE - A Singapore car was stolen on Monday (Aug 10) at a carpark outside Tebrau city, a popular Johor Baru mall.

Video from a surveillance camera showed that 10 seconds was all it took for a man to unlock the driver-side door of the missing car and drive it away.

The incident was not the first time a Singapore car went missing in Malaysia. We look at five other times when Singapore cars got into trouble in Malaysia:

HONDA STREAM GOES MISSING OUTSIDE JB'S PERLING MALL

Photo: Berita Harian

Engineer Arunachalam Sathiamoorthy was on his way back to Singapore after an overnight trip to beach resort Desaru with his wife and daughter on Aug 8 when he lost his way.

The 48-year-old decided to stop at Perling Mall for a quick bite as his daughter was hungry, but returned less than an hour later to find his car missing.

An iPhone 6 Plus, three credit cards and two CashCards were among the valuables in his vehicle.

STOLEN CAR RECOVERED, THANKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Photo: China Press

Mr Joe Ong, and his brother Eric, posted an appeal on Facebook for help after his white Honda Civic was stolen in Johor Baru in July.

Mr Ong had left the vehicle at a car wash near the KSL City Mall at around 6pm, before heading for dinner with his friends. A man claiming to be his friend drove the car off shortly after 6.30pm.

The car was recovered and the suspected car thief nabbed three weeks after the incident, thanks to clues left behind by netizens.

HARROWING THREE-HOUR ORDEAL TO FIND HER KIDNAPPED FAMILY

Photo: The Straits Times

Former TV reporter Rita Zahara was driving back to Singapore at about 12.45am on July 1, 2012, when she stopped near Jalan Tun Abdul Razak to buy fruit from a roadside stall. Her children, sister and maid waited in the car.

She returned to find the car and its occupants gone. She was reunited with her family members three hours later, after many tense phone conversations with the suspects. The hijackers got away with the car, cash and belongings amounting to about $78,000.

Malaysian police nabbed the suspects a few days later.

They are believed to be high on the drug methamphetamine at the time of the carjacking and are also thought to be linked to 14 other crimes in Johor, including vehicle theft, robbery and drug offences.

ROBBERS GET INTO CAR AT PETROL KIOSK

Photo: The Straits Times

Mr Affandi Mahat was in Jalan Tebrau at about 2am on Monday when two men got into his Hyundai Sonata and ordered him at gunpoint to drive.

Mr Affandi was then in a brightly lit petrol kiosk just across the road from the police headquarters.

He said they tied his hands with cable ties and left him - minus his car - by at a roadside near Kota Tinggi, nearly 140km away.

MANY S'POREANS LEARNT THEIR LESSON THE HARD WAY

Photo: Chong Kee Seng

Mr Chong Kee Seng had his car broken into outside a busy McDonald's outlet near Tebrau Highway in Johor Baru in 2009.

He and his family returned to their vehicle to find a window smashed, and their belongings, including a camera and cellphone, gone.

Another man said the window of his mother's car was smashed and her handbag snatched from the front passenger seat, even as she waited at a traffic junction for the lights to turn green.

NOT SAFE ON N-S HIGHWAY, EVEN IN CONVOY

Photo: Lianhe Wanbao

In September 2008, a Ferrari 430 Spyder, on its way to meet a convoy of about 20 Ferraris and Maseratis which had set out earlier that morning for Genting Highlands, crashed while being chased by thugs on Malaysia's North-South Highway.

The Ferrari found itself pursued by a Malaysia-registered Mercededes-Benz. The Ferrari driver, a businessman, tried to shake off the Merc, but the car then spun out of control and crashed into a railing and another car.

The thugs used a crowbar to smash the vehicle, before dragging the owner out to rain punches on him. Four more thugs joined in before the suspects ran off with the man's two watches.

This article was first published on Aug 12, 2015.
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