Car thieves getting bolder in USJ
By K. Anuradha

RESIDENTS of UEP Subang Jaya (USJ) have been beset by an alarming number of car thefts in their area lately.

Although car theft is not a problem confined to this residential estate alone, there is a significant difference here; the residents are collectively concerned, and they are doing something about it. 

Ong Hua Meng of USJ 16 said community policing and increased vigilance could reduce the number of thefts. 

“We have to show that we in the neighbourhood are looking out for one another, and continue with our Neighbourhood Watch nightly rounds.” 

The problem now is that although nightly patrols have reduced the number of break-ins in the area, thieves are getting bolder. 

“They are now stealing cars, often between evening and dusk”, he said. 

Some of the neighbourhoods in USJ have their own security guards, who patrol the roads round-the-clock. 

Where there are no such measures, the thief sees an opportunity and grabs it, and they are getting bolder every time. 

Their targets are not only the cars parked just outside the house. The thieves are brazen enough to enter a house with security alarms, and break into a car (in this case a Toyota Lexus) before driving it away. 

Andy Lim of USJ 17 believes that it is time the residents got together and take care of their neighbourhood themselves. 

He said closer interaction between the neighbours would result in fewer crimes, since neighbours could look out for each other. 

“If you were in a kampung, a stranger cannot just walk in and steal a cow unnoticed,” he said. 

“This is because everyone in a kampung knows each other and the presence of a stranger will stick out like a sore thumb.” 

At least five sections in USJ already have neighbourhood watch patrols carried out nightly. 

Shah Alam OCPD Assistant Commissioner of Police Mohd Shukri Dahlan said a total of 34 cars were stolen in USJ in January alone, while the number dropped to 27 in February. 

He believes that police presence is necessary as deterrence to crime, but concedes that lack of manpower combined with a large area to police requires a good bit of intelligent deployment of officers. 

“We have 566 men in the Shah Alam police, and my boys work as much as 18 hours a day doing different jobs.” 

Shukri also said even the men in blue were now deployed to direct traffic at 10 critical points in USJ and Shah Alam during peak hours. 

Pledging to make neighbourhoods safer in his district, he said USJ would have a permanent police patrol. 

Mohd Shukri’s words demonstrate an understanding of the situation and determination to reduce the crime rate in the area. 

During a recent introductory meeting with the Residents Associations representatives in USJ, he said the police lacked credible intelligence on car thefts in the area. 

“It must be the work of a syndicate. Stealing is just one part of the larger picture. In a car theft, there are people to identify cars to be stolen, then the thieves, themselves dismantle the cars, and others will sell it.” 

“These things are very organised, and the thieves are very much mobile. We increase police presence in an area where several thefts have taken place, but by then they would have moved elsewhere in the Klang Valley,” he said. 

Subang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said the demand for stolen car parts was one of the reasons why car thefts were increasingly rampant. 

“This trend is very worrying, but it would take collective effort to stop the syndicates.” 

For one, he said, consumers could help by ensuring their cars were not fitted with stolen parts. 

On the other end is of course the prevention of car thefts. 

Melvin Lee of USJ 5 is one man convinced that getting to know your neighbours and the goings on in your neighbourhood is crucial in reducing crime. 

“The only hitch is neighbours have become strangers. We have forgotten the importance of fostering closer ties with those living around us, and that is a contributing factor,” he said. 

He related an incident where two houses were burgled in the same street in his area.  

“The neighbours, not knowing each other well, just thought the people living next door were moving away and the lorry came to move their furniture.” 

Much of the heavy furniture in the house were carted away by the brazen thieves during the day under the neighbours’ noses, but no one saw anything amiss. 

“This is what happens when we become strangers,” said Lee, himself a victim of burglary.