By Arul John

TEN minutes was all it took for a pleasant shopping trip to turn sour for two friends.

That was the time it took for two men to steal their car in Johor Baru (JB) on Thursday.

Miss Claire Gwee, 29, who owns the 18-month-old black Mitsubishi Colt Plus, had gone to JB that morning with her friend, Miss Law Ley San, also 29. The women, who are unemployed, went to the Jusco departmental store at AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre, a 45-minute drive from Johor's Bukit Chagar checkpoint.The place is getting popular with Singaporeans.

Miss Gwee, who lives in Sengkang, goes to JB once a week to have dinner or to shop.

That day she parked her car in the red area of the basement carpark.

Pay for parking

She said: "At about 3.10pm, after our shopping, Ley San and I returned to the carpark and put our shopping bags in the car boot. Then, I took my parking coupon out from the car and we went upstairs to pay the parking charges."

When Miss Gwee returned to the carpark 10 minutes later, she was shocked to see her car was gone, and another car was in the same lot.

Initially, she thought she was at the wrong parking lot but it dawned on her about five minutes later that her car was stolen.

Both women had left their passports and groceries worth aboutRM60($25) in the car. Miss Gwee also left her identity card, credit cards, ATM card, $150 cash and a Cashcard with stored value of $100.

Miss Law left her handphone, MP3 player, and some other items in a bag in the car, but carried her wallet and identity card with her.

Whenthe women went to the information counter to ask for help, the woman on duty did not pay much attention to them, they alleged.

Miss Gwee, who had quit her job the day before the trip, said: "When I pleaded for her to help us, she took us to one side and said she would ask the security staff to drive around the carpark to look for my car."

She said a security officer later arrived and spoke to the counter staff in Malay.

She said: "When I asked the officer if there was any closed circuit TV (CCTV) camera on the premises, he said there was one at the gantry but only police officers could view it. When we pleaded to see the footage, he said he would ask his supervisor about our request."

After waiting another 20 minutes, she called the police and requested them to meet her at the shopping centre.

A police car soon arrived and took them to Setia Indah police station, a 20-minute drive from the shopping centre.

There, two police officers, Sergeant Krishna and Sergeant Shankar, helped Miss Gwee lodge a report and prepared the necessary documents to help them return to Singapore.

Miss Gwee said: "After lodging the report, my friend and I wanted to take a taxi home. But one of the off-duty police officers offered to drive us to City Square shopping centre.

"I called a friend in Singapore and asked him to pick me and my friend up from there. I want to take this opportunity to thank Sergeant Shankar and Sergeant Krishna for their help."

On Friday, Miss Gwee called Sergeant Krishna who told her they were investigating the case.

She said: "He said the CCTV footage showed two men approaching my car before it went missing. He said it was likely that one of them drove my car while the other man drove the car parked in front of mine.

"He said both men probably drove the cars closely behind each other. Sergeant Krishna said the man driving the car in front of mine probably used his coupon to clear the gantry,and the other man drove out while the gantry was still up."

Sergeant Shankar told The New Paper that all police stations in Malaysia were told to look out for any car matching the description of Miss Gwee's car.

anathan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.