Wednesday August 30, 2006
Parade SMS sends police helter-skelter
BY CHAN LI LEEN and FARIDAH BEGUM
IPOH: Scores of police patrol cars in several states raced towards shopping complexes ending with the name “Parade” following an SMS alert that claimed an 18-year-old girl had been abducted from a rooftop car park on Tuesday.
Police in Johor, Selangor, Perak and Pahang reacted to the SMS alert and despatched their patrol cars with their sirens blaring. They also set up roadblocks in a bid to prevent the abductors from fleeing.
However, the SMS which referred to a shopping parade, turned out to be inaccurate and one day late.
The incident occured in Ipoh on Monday at about 7.20pm when five men confronted a college student who was with her boyfriend on the fourth-floor parking lot of a shopping complex.
State CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk A. Paramasivam said the couple had just left the shopping centre where the boyfriend worked and were getting into their Proton Wira Aeroback when the group of men appeared.
“They pushed the boyfriend aside, got into the car and drove off with the girl still inside. She was dropped off in Simpang Pulai, at the junction leading to Cameron Highlands, at about 8pm,” he said.
He said the couple’s car was found abandoned behind a bank in Jelapang an hour later.
SAC Paramasivam said nothing was taken from the couple and they were not hurt or assaulted. Police have classified the case as robbery but have yet to establish a motive.
He advised the public to be more alert at car parks, and go back into the building to get help from security guards or report suspicious characters to the police.
”If people are a bit more alert, a lot can be prevented,” he said, adding that the public could SMS the police any information they had through the Rakan Cop hotline at 32728.
“Key the numbers into your mobile phones to alert the police fast,’’ he added.
The phone numbers for the state police control centre are 05-2401999 and 05-2535472 while the Ipoh police control centre can be reached at 05-2542222.
In Pahang, state CID chief Asst Comm Narenasagaran Thangaveloo said a thorough investigation was carried out when they received an alert that an abduction had taken place at the car park of a complex in Kuantan, and the car number was given.
As the hours went by, more messages came through, with one saying that the car was sighted in Bandar Indera Mahkota heading towards Kuala Lumpur.
An hour later, e-mails received by several people stated that the car was sighted in the Beserah area and heading towards Terengganu.
“We have investigated the matter and our personnel have checked the parking lot and spoken to those in the area. No one was aware of such an incident,” he said.
Subang Jaya OCPD ACP Mohd Fuad Talib said police went to Subang Parade to investigate and found no such incident occurred after they too were alerted via SMS.
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