Outrage as burglary victim compelled to switch shorts for police report

INTERNET users are outraged that a car break-in victim wearing shorts was turned away from a police station and asked to wear long pants before lodging a report.

The story appeared in China Press saying a 34-year-old man named Shim found that his car window was broken after he came back from dining at a hawker centre in Bukit Tambun, Penang.

Among the stolen items were RM800 in cash and his wife’s passport, which prompted him to go to the police station to make a quick report since his wife is a Chinese national and replacing the passport would require a trip to Kuala Lumpur.

“I immediately went to report the incident at the Simpang Ampat police station. The sentry outside enquired with the police officers inside and told me to lodge the report at the Tambun police station instead.

“I asked the sentry whether I could lodge the report here since I was already outside the police station, and the sentry told me to go home and change into long pants first,” he said.

He said that while he understood that a person has to wear long pants at the police station, he was wearing shorts to dine out and went to the police station because he felt it was an emergency, saying: “Is an emergency the right time to be telling someone to go home and change into long pants so they could lodge a police report?”

The story took a twist, though after Tambun police personnel on patrol saw his child searching for the passport in shrubs. He hoped the burglar had thrown the passport away. The police officer asked him to instead make a report at the Tambun police station, which he managed to do while still wearing the shorts.

But the incident has inflamed the internet once again, with netizens weighing on the matter with seriousness and jokes.

On Facebook, Siew Hoong Wong said:

Jokingly, Ricky Teo added:

Meanwhile,  the question remains for Sanjeev Palani: – Dec 9, 2023

Main photo credit: Polis Daerah Kajang’s Facebook

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