Woman claims police allow Ah Long to hold keys of her stolen car

Tang standing with Lim (L) showing the police report lodged

Source: http://www.fz.com/content/woman-claims-police-allow-ah-long-hold-keys-her-stolen-car (by Jaqueline Png 27/12/2013)

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 27): A woman has claimed that her car was stolen in a hotel car park in Genting Highlands and ended up in the hands of loan sharks, who want her to pay off a RM10,000 debt to get the car back.

Tang Poh Lin from Ipoh, went to Genting Highlands for a family holiday on Oct 19. Her car, a Honda CRV was left in the hotel car park for a week until she realised it had gone missing.

Tang said she did not lock her car and the car keys were left inside the vehicle. The car was allegedly stolen, along with important documents in it, including passports, birth certificate of her child, SPM certificates, car insurance and car loan documents.

When asked why was her car not locked with the keys left inside, Tang insisted that she forgot to lock her car. She also said she carried her important documents with her as she travelled around alot.

She lodged a report at the Genting Highlands police station on Oct 26.

Tang said on Nov 18, she received a phone call from a police officer stating that her car was found and told her to collect it at the Bentong police station.

"Sergent Shamsudin told me to come to Bentong to collect my car. When I got there, I waited for an hour before he told me that the car had been pawned to Ah Long (loan sharks) for RM10,000," she said when met at a press conference with DAP Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng.

"The sergent told me harshly to deal with the 2 Chinese Ah Long at the police station canteen. They (Ah Long) accused me of borrowing RM10,000 from them, but when I denied, they changed their story."

Tang said the loan sharks second version of the story was that, an unknown man had sold the car to them and they paid RM10,000 as deposit payment.

"Now, the Ah Long said they paid for the car and want the money back. But they cannot even produce any ID of the said man. No name, telephone number, photostat IC or anything. Again, I denied all of this and they want me to find the man responsible for the alleged transaction," she said.

Tang said the loan sharks also forged her signature and thumbprint on a vehicle ownership transfer form of Road Transport Department as evidence, but all the other particulars were not filled.

"I argued with them, I told them many times that it is not my thumbprint nor did I signed the form. The signature is completely different from mine! If I really did take their money, they wouldn't let me go that easily," she insisted.

Tang said her protest was dismissed at the police station and Sergent Shamsudin did not carry out any verification measures of the said "evidence" produced by the Ah Longs.

She claimed that the police allowed the Ah Long keep her car keys until the matter was settled.

"In fact the sergent told me if I don't cooperate with the Ah Long and pay up, he threatened to charge me for making a fake police report," she claimed.

"For the police to let the Ah Long walk away with my car keys is absurd.

"The sergent is clearly covering up for the loan sharks. Who knows, he might have a stake in that RM10,000 payment. For me, I will never pay."

Tang also said the Ah Long only returned her passport as requested.

Tang works as a bird's nest post-production specialist and travels frequently between Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Johor. With her only car held hostage, she commutes via coach to deal with her job in different states.

She said since meeting the Ah Long at the police station in Bentong, Tang had not received any word on how her case was progressing. She also said there were no phone calls from the police or the loan sharks.

At the moment, her car is stranded at the Bentong police station while loan sharks are holding her key for ransom.

Tang has lodged another police report at the Taman Johor Jaya, Johor police station to express her dissatifaction of how her case was handled and to clarify that she had never taken any loans from the Ah Long.

She has also sought help from Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng and called for a press conference to bring the issue to light.

Lim said he wrote to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar for assistance but received lackluster respond.

"Bukit Aman (police headquarters) called me to ask what does 'GH' mean in the report number. I told them it stands for Genting Highlands, where the car was reportedly stolen."

"This is the standard of our police force," Lim lambasted.

Lim also said a complaint will be lodged at the newly established Public Complaint Bureau (PCB) which is under the purview of the prime minister's department if no further action was taken.

"We will get the word out first and see if the authorities take action. Otherwise, we'll complain to PCB."