100km drive to get car back

ALOR SETAR: A contractor from Simpang Ampat, Penang, drove about 100km to Pekan Melayu here, tracking two men who stole his RM100,000 Toyota Hilux.

Mohd Shahruddin Idris, 44, followed the signal of his stolen vehicle’s GPS (global positioning system) device until he found out that there was a pursuit between the police and the thieves who took his Hilux.

The thieves, in their bid to escape when they realised they were being pursued, drove straight into eight motorcycles parked outside a motorcycle shop and ended up crashing into a Tenaga Nasional Bhd power box.

Mohd Shahruddin said he woke up at 5.20am yesterday to find his front door ajar and a set of keys missing from his house.

I went out and saw that my Hilux was missing, so I immediately lodged a report at the Batu Kawan police station.

But I could not just sit and wait for it to be found.

“I decided to use the GPS to go after the thieves,” he said, adding that he drove his friend’s car and was accompanied by the friend.

A Pekan Melayu trader, who wanted to be known only as Lim, 53, said he heard a loud bang when he was about to open his shop at about 9.30am yesterday.

He said he saw two men in the 4WD, which hit a power box.

He noticed that one of them was injured but he did not dare approach the vehicle, fearing the men might be armed.

A worker at the motorcycle shop said eight motorcycles were damaged in the crash.

Kota Setar OCPD Asst Comm Adzaman Mohd Jan said the driver of the stolen Hilux was trying to escape to Pekan Cina when he hit the motorcycles and the power box.

He said police had arrested the two men, in their 20s, and handed them to Penang police for further investigation.