Last Saturday, a Singaporean-registered Honda Stream was reported missing from a car park in Perling Mall, Johor Bahru, the second such case in the past 3 days.
48 year-old engineer Arunachalam Sathiamoorthy had parked near the mall at around 3.30pm. He was on a 2-day trip to beach resort Desaru with his wife and daughter while on the way back to Singapore when he lost his way.
"My daughter was hungry so we decided to make a brief stop to get her some food, but my car was gone when I returned less than an hour later."
"If I had not gotten lost, this would not have happened. But I never expected it to have been stolen so quickly."
To make matters worse, he discovered that one of the three credit cards left in the vehicle was used by the thief at 5.36pm later that day.
The RM200 (S$71.10) transaction was recorded at a nearby petrol station. Mr Sathiamoorthy also lost two cash cards, an iPhone 6 Plus and two suitcases containing the family's clothes.
He said the Johor police had informed him that a review of surveillance footage showed his car exiting the carpark, although the time is not known.
But he believes that the theft of his car could be connected to a similar case on Monday, when fellow Singaporean Nolan Khoo's Honda Civic was stolen in 10 seconds at JB's Tebrau City, about 16km away from Perling Mall.
Mr Sathiamoorthy had met Mr Khoo at the insurance company on Tuesday as both were filing their claims.
"It could have been a coincidence, but two Hondas from Singapore stolen in a quick fashion within three days? I have warned my friends to avoid driving across the Causeway for now."
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