Personal account of an attack in Taman Paramount, PJ

As we read in the papers and share testimonials on social media on the numerous reports of attacks that are rampant lately, one can't help but also hope their loved ones like family and friends are safe. Last Saturday, 28 July 2012 at about 2.30pm, my friend became part of the statistics of increasing crime rate. Sophie* was exiting her boyfriend's home in Taman Paramount and she was alone outside the gate. She saw two motorbikes and four rempits approaching her, so her first instinct was to jump into her car, a Honda Jazz, and locked it.

Unfortunately, they surrounded her car - each motorbike with two robbers on both left and right sides - and smashed her car's windows. The windows were tinted but even then, the first impact of smash was so great that it burst into tiny pieces of glass. Sophie had placed her handbag that contained her personal belongings like wallet, two handphones, an iPad and office keys on the floor of the passenger's side. She used her left leg to kick it under and managed to honk for attention. But everything happened within seconds. One of the robbers grabbed her and shoved her back to her seat, whilst another robber on the left grabbed her bag. Both motorbikes fled the scene in an instant. Neighbours had also heard Sophie screamed and they came out. So did Matt*, Sophie's boyfriend, who was at home at that time. One of the neighbour noticed a blue Samsung jacket (which could be a football jacket) that one of the robbers were wearing and this was communicated.

Matt had enlisted the help of his roommate to phone the police immediately, while he attended to his gf (she received stitches on her arm after being admitted to the hospital). The police patrol car did arrive at the scene despite going to the wrong address due to miscommunication, which Matt isn't sure on whose part. As Sophie was receiving treatment, Matt had gone to the nearest police station in SS2 to lodge a report. He also triggered the iPad locator, which was traced to a house and he insisted that they go to the address. Together with some Investigation Officers (IO), they rode into a kampung area and pinpointed a house. One of the officers asked for permission to enter and the lady who answered, allowed them in and also retorted that she's not seen her sons for a long time.

Matt followed the cops into a dark room and he noticed bags of tools and computer hardware parts which were suspicious. But he did not see his gf's bag or the iPad. Because the suspects were not at the said home, the officers could not do anything, even without a warrant to search or orders from higher level. A cop also noticed a similar blue Samsung jacket, which he had shown Matt, which was seen by the eyewitness.

The time from when Matt lodged the police report to the search at the home, it took about three hours altogether. Matt is frustrated but he is also thankful that the cops did attend to his case. His frustrations were that despite knowing where the iPad locator was (the icon was blinking for more than 30 minutes in one area), his suggestion of asking the police patrol car that arrived at his home to despatch another patrol car to the suspected area was not heeded because of lack of 'instructions from higher level' and not being able to search the house thoroughly.

This story was told to me by Matt and Sophie.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy