Image: Kuta Central Park hotel area. Credit Google maps.
Kuta Polsek police arrested two Iranian men, S. A., 53, and S. N. H., 41 on Friday night, after one of them acted as a policeman and stole money from a Chinese tourist, Long Zhihong, 46, in front of Kuta Central Park Hotel on Jalan Patih Jelantik, Kuta at around 8.50pm.
The incident began when the Chinese man was walking with his family after they had been shopping. A white car pulled up next to them and one of the suspects rolled down the car window. He claimed that they were police officers and they wanted to check them.
Then he demanded the man’s children come near the car and they checked the children’s clothes. After they checked the children, they then checked him and grabbed the man’s wallet from his pant’s back pocket.
According to Bali Post, the victim let them check his wallet in the car because he thought that the men were real policemen and eventually the men gave him his wallet back and left. When the Chinese tourist checked his wallet, he discovered that USD 1,400 was missing. The victim then reported the incident to Kuta Polsek Headquarters.
After police received the report, they went to the crime scene and watched the CCTV street recording. They also questioned several witnesses. The CCTV recording showed the car’s registration and also showed that the suspects had grabbed the victim’s wallet.
Later that night at around 10.30pm, police patrolling Jalan Raya Tuban saw the car. They stopped it in front of Laota Restaurant on Jalan Raya Kuta.
They checked the car and found three foreigners inside, recognizing one of the suspects whose face was recorded on the CCTV, they brought them to Kuta Polsek where S. A. admitted that he was the one who acted as the policeman and S. N. H. was the driver. The police also found USD 300 when they searched them.
The Head of Denpasar Police, Commissioner Ruddi Setiawan, said that the suspects rented the car for a week. “They arrived in Bali on January 8 with the motive of getting money. We are still investigating the case,” he said to merdeka.com at Kuta Polsek on Monday.
Ruddi also said that it was their first time that they had come to Bali as tourists.
