KEPALA BATAS: The incident where a man had stolen a police's Honda Civic patrol car to impress his girlfriend on Saturday night has taken a new twist.
The "girlfriend" now has alleged that she did not know the man and was forced to follow him.
Sources said the 21-year-old woman claimed she did not know the man and was at work at a cellular phone shop about 9.45pm when she was taken away shortly after he stole a Honda Civic 1.8S police patrol vehicle from the Seberang Prai Utara police headquarters.
"According to the woman, the suspect had gone to her workplace and ordered her to follow him, claiming to be a policeman.
"She told police he told her that she had several criminal cases that needed to be settled, and so she had followed him out of fear.
"The suspect, however, claimed otherwise, saying he knew the woman and that she was his girlfriend. Police are still investigating the incident further," the source said.
The source also said that the suspect had tried and failed to rob the cellular shop, having already failed to rob a sundry shop nearby, as there were customers in both premises then.
He said police were also probing whether there was an element of negligience on their part when the patrol vehicle was stolen.
Meanwhile, Seberang Prai Utara police chief Assistant Commissioner Noorzainy Mohd Noor confirmed the matter and said that the woman, the suspect and the suspect's younger brother had been remanded for four days to assist investigation into the incident.
"Besides probing into the incident, we are also investigating if there is element of negligience on the part of the police. We believe that we will be able to wrap up the investigation papers soon," he said.
It was reported that police had detained two men and a woman for driving off with a new Honda Civic 1.8S patrol vehicle from the Seberang Prai Utara police headquarters here on Saturday night.
The two brothers, aged 28 and 32, who had claimed to be policemen from the information technology resources unit, had entered the patrol vehicle on the pretext of inspecting its dashcam.
At the time of the incident, there was a policeman who was supervising the patrol vehicle unit on duty.
The elder brother managed to take the car keys from the rack before leaving a laptop behind.
He then sped off with the vehicle from the compound of the district police headquarters, without the supervisor, a police sergeant, suspecting anything.
The supervisor only realised something was amiss when the suspect failed to return with the patrol vehicle after about 30 minutes.
The vehicle was subsequently spotted in Shah Alam, about 370km away.
Police there managed to apprehend the elder brother and a woman in her 20s who they believed to be be his girlfriend, inside the vehicle.
Following the arrest of the duo, police also nabbed the younger brother in Tasek Gelugor yesterday morning to assist investigations.