Jakarta Police busts luxury car theft ring

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 03/30/2011 3:05 PM | Jakarta

Jakarta Police on Tuesday uncovered and arrested suspects linked to the theft of luxury cars.

Jakarta Police crimes chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Nico Afinta said Wednesday that one of the luxurious cars the syndicate had managed to steal had belonged to an official at the Foreign Ministry.

Nico said the police moved in to arrest the members of the syndicate after receiving reports from their victims.

Police then arrested suspects JO, YH and RZ, and confiscated seven luxury vehicles from the suspects.

The suspects said they had been stealing luxury cars in Jakarta, Bekasi and Tangerang since 2009.

House: Korea document theft an embarrassment

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 02/21/2011 1:26 PM | National

The incident in Seoul, South Korea, in which Indonesian officials reportedly had files stolen, is an embarrassment to national security, the House of Representatives' defense and foreign affairs commission says.

“What kind of a defense system have we got? How could there be such negligence?” said House Commission I member Gen. (ret.) TB Hasanuddin from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

South Korean media has reported that three unidentified intruders — two men and a woman — broke into a suite at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul where Indonesian presidential envoys were staying during a state visit from Feb. 15 to 17.

Seoul Police said they suspected the intruders had copied computer files containing sensitive military procurement information from a laptop belonging to one of the envoys using USB memory sticks.

Hasanuddin said the theft was likely.

“So the defense minister and the foreign affairs minister need to be fair to the public. If it is true that [files] were stolen, don't say they were not [to avoid] embarrassment,” he said as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

Black magic behind Sidoarjo infant corpse theft: Expert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 02/16/2011 11:48 AM | Archipelago

Residents of several villages in East Java town of Sidoarjo have been put into turmoil over the past week with the disappearance of dozens of infant corpses from cemeteries, in what is believed to be related to the practice of black magic.

As of Tuesday, up to 24 infant corpses had been removed from graves, tribunnews.com reported.

Psychic Ki Kusumo who has been following the issue said the person stealing the corpses wanted to improve his black magic skills.

“The infant corpse thief wants perfect self-immunity. There are also those who carry out such thefts in search of wealth. Both are practicing black magic,” Kusumo said in Bekasi, West Java.

Kusumo said the thief may want immunity from sharp objects and fire, among other things.

The thefts were first reported by Sapari, 55, who guards Bonosari village cemetery in Sidoarjo, after he noticed that an infant grave had been disturbed.

After discovering more infant graves had been disturbed and corpses missing, Sapari reported the incident to police.