A routine delivery of ice turned into a police chase lasting 60 minutes and covering 50km after a truck was stolen. Khoo How San reports, with contributions from Teh Joo Lin, Arlina Arshad & Tracy Sua
  HE TRIED HIS BEST TO STOP THE THIEF: Deliveryman Wunna Swa demonstrates how he tried to get the thief's attention by waving to him. Behind him is the truck that was stolen. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM |
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The Myanmar national also reminded himself to keep the engine running so that the ice in the back of his truck would not melt.
Then, off he went to deliver some 18kg of ice to a florist in Ang Mo Kio Central.
It took Mr Swa only two minutes to do that. His truck was still within sight but when he returned, he saw a man climbing into the driver's seat - it was a scene he will long remember.
With the engine already running, the 'ice-jacker' made a quick getaway.
Mr Swa tried running after the Mitsubishi Canter refrigerated truck as it wended its way out of the open carpark. Exhausted, he took out his mobile phone and called his manager.
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'I WAS scared to lose my job. I chased...but could not catch up,' Mr Swa said.
'So, I called my manager on my cellphone. My manager called my big boss who called me and picked me up at Ang Mo Kio,' he added.
Mr Alex Goh, 55, director of Uni-Tat Ice and Marketing, which owns a fleet of 39 refrigerated trucks, including the one hijacked, was at home when his operations manager, Mr Kelvin Tan, 36, called him on his mobile phone.
'At first, my driver thought a colleague was playing a joke on him,' said Mr Goh. But it soon hit him that it was no joke.
Back at the office, Mr Tan knew what had to be done next.
Half the fleet was equipped with global positioning system (GPS) satellite tracking devices, as a truck had been stolen previously. In another occasion, a driver had used a truck for cigarette smuggling.
Flipping some switches, it did not take Mr Tan long to locate where the runaway truck was. He called Mr Goh again, as well as the police.
Later, as the police gave chase, Mr Tan was to serve as the 'link', relaying messages between the police and Mr Goh, who also joined the pursuit in his Toyota Land Cruiser Prado.
Mr Goh described to The Straits Times what followed. He picked up Mr Swa from the Ang Mo Kio Central carpark and called Mr Tan. The truck was now at Yio Chu Kang.
He said: 'The police started tracking the lorry at Hougang Avenue 4. At first there were just one or two police cars.
'I drove in my Toyota Land Cruiser Prado to join the chase, and we caught up at Yio Chu Kang Road.
'When I got there, I saw nine police cars in what looked like a convoy, with the lorry on the right-most lane.
'I drove alongside the lorry, side by side. I was in the middle lane on its left.
'The lorry's windows were wound down and its speed then was about 30kmh.'
The GPS log was to show that during the chase, the speed reached 76kmh at one time.
'I saw the driver, who looked like an Indian,' Mr Goh said.
'I shouted to him two or three times: 'Annah (Tamil for elder brother), surrender, surrender. Stop'.'
But Mr Goh said the man shook his head and briefly waved his hands as if to say 'No, no, no'.
What Mr Goh said next could have come out of a Hollywood movie script.
'I asked Wunna if he could try to jump into the truck and take out the key. Wunna said OK. At that time, I was scared that the man would knock someone down because he was driving so recklessly.
'Two times, once at a traffic light in Yio Chu Kang Road and a second time when the traffic slowed down in Sin Ming, we found an opportunity. But before Wunna could go over to jump into the truck, it sped off.
'I then received a call from Mr Tan. He told me that the police asked me not to go too close to the truck,' he said.
Later, it was found that the chase had gone on for an hour. Distance covered: 50km.
The chase ends
THE chase ended at Sin Ming Drive. The rogue driver seemed unfamiliar with the area. He drove into Vicom Vehicle Inspection Centre and then out.
He then drove into a ComfortDelgro workshop.
Mr Goh was still tailing him, all the way in.
The police posse too.
'As soon as the police cars had got in, I quickly got out of my car and closed the exit gate so he wouldn't be able to drive out,' Mr Goh said.
But time was lost. The lorry was found abandoned and the culprit had disappeared in the vast compound.
The police looked for the man everywhere, even in the toilets.
Then an eagle-eyed workshop employee spotted a man under a car being repaired. He realised that it was not a mechanic as the man was not wearing a uniform.
The employee alerted the police.
After about 10 minutes, the man crawled out and did not put up a struggle.
Mr Swa was glad the man was caught.
He said: 'When we caught him, we found invoices, $5 worth of coins, and a small Buddha statue my mother gave me missing from the dashboard. I was very angry because the statue was very precious to me.
'This is the first time something like this has happened to me. I was very worried, and scared.'
A man has been arrested and police are investigating the case.
The ice in the truck was found intact.
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