Petrol stations: convenient targets for criminals

http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Tuesday/Hotnews/20080603192022/Article/index_html
Convenient targets for criminals
By REENA RAJ

THE evolution of the lowly petrol station into a one-stop centre for people on the go has led to another development — these stations have become a convenient target for criminals.
Where once it was just a place to fill your tank, these days a petrol station doubles up as a convenience store, where one can withdraw from the ATM machine, get food and use the washroom as well.

With all that and longer stopovers, the owners are not the only ones who recognise that that generates more money.

Which is why these one-stop centres have also attracted the attention of those with criminal intent. There have been enough cases in recent years where people going to petrol stations, especially late in the night or in the early hours of the morning, have fallen prey to thugs and robbers.

In a recent case on Feb 1, a security guard was hit on the head with a gun by one of the robbers who raided a petrol station in Section 27, Shah Alam.

This took place in broad daylight, at 10.20am, during which four men wearing ski masks escaped with three gunny sacks containing RM300,000 that they took from a security van. The five-minute grab-and-run took place when the guards were about to load the money into the ATM machine in the petrol station.

Some of the other incidents include:

● Limousine driver Low Tek Chai, 46, was slashed to death when he fought off robbers who tried to take away his Mercedes Benz while he was refuelling at a petrol station at Batu 4, Jalan Gombak. A passerby found his body, slumped in the back seat of his car. He was believed to have been attacked at about 5.30pm by a lone man armed with a parang.

● On Sept 13, 2006, theatre producer Siti Rohayah Atan, 33, could only stand stunned for 10 minutes after seeing a man run off with a bag containing RM30,000 that he grabbed from her car. She had stopped at a petrol station in Selayang at 2.30pm, to fuel up for a trip to Ipoh, after having withdrawn the money from a bank in Selayang.