Woman still traumatised by theft that happened six years ago

PETALING JAYA: An incident involving a car theft that happened six years ago affected a woman so much that she is reluctant to drive alone now.

Diana Izzati, 29, said her car just vanished from her university dormitory’s parking lot.

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“At the time of the incident in July 2018, I was enrolled in a programme at my private university during the semester break. Since I was still staying at the hostel, I left my car there and used the transport provided by the university.

“While on the way back to the hostel, I looked outside the bus window and noticed that my car was not at its usual spot,” she said in an interview yesterday.

Diana, who now works as a marketing executive, said she thought that her car might have been towed away by campus security. She asked whether there were CCTV recordings of the area, but at the time, the university had not installed cameras, so she filed a report with the campus security office and went to the police station to lodge another report.

“The police contacted Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to check if they had towed my car. A police officer was assigned to my case and I had to go to the Brickfields police station to lodge another statement,” she added.

Diana said that since she used an old Proton Saga, she didn’t bother to take additional security measures such as using a steering lock. She didn’t think that anyone would steal an old car like hers.

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Her car was recovered a few months later. She was shocked when she learnt that her car was suspected to have been used to transport drugs. Since then, she prefers to use public transport instead of driving.

Another victim, Nor Idayu Bosro, 38, also had her car stolen when it was parked at a public area in Desa Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, in August 2014. This was after she took all the precautionary measures to keep her car safe when parked at a busy location.

“I took all the necessary measures to make sure that my car has extra security, such as locking the steering with a specialised lock and double checking if I locked all the doors when I left it. I only parked my car at designated parking lots,” she said, adding that she did not want to double park.

After lodging a police report on the incident, Nor Idayu was told that her car model was a favourite target for thieves.

“The police instructed me to wait for around a week for them to conduct an investigation before I could proceed with the insurance claims but it was never revealed how my car was stolen,” she added.

Nor Idayu said all four tyres of her car were stolen in a separate incident before this.