In a matter of minutes, this couple got robbed twice – once by obvious crooks, and the other by a crook masquerading as a good Samaritan.
The incident took place during their holiday trip to Bali last week.
At about 2am on Monday (6 May), Eugene Aathar and his wife, Dolly Ho, were riding a rented scooter back to their villa in Kuta when 2 men on a motorcycle rode up to them.
Ho was at the time riding pillion and using her Samsung S10 handphone to find the route back to the villa.
One of the men snatched her handphone and kicked the scooter she was on.
Aathar and Ho fell off the scooter, and Ho blacked out.
Aathar then cried out for help.
A man came up to him and asked him where his scooter was, and Aathar pointed to its location.
The man then rode off on the scooter.
Aathar subsequently flagged down a passing van, and the driver sent him and Ho to the Siloam Hospital Denpasar.
Aathar suffered minor injuries, but Ho suffered a concussion and broken shoulder.
She also couldn’t recall the incident.
The couple have been going to Bali at least once or twice a year in the past few years and this is the first time they were attacked by criminals.
Aathar had rented the scooter from the villa, and he claimed that staff there harassed them and demanded 250 million rupiah (S$23,700) as compensation for the stolen scooter – a Honda Scoopy.
He said they only stopped when he paid them 12 million rupiah (S$1140).
In a police report, the couple stated that they also lost 12 million rupiah which they had kept on the scooter.
Fortunately, the couple bought travel insurance, and the insurer arranged for a doctor to escort them on the flight back to Singapore last Friday.
Back in Singapore, Ho was warded at the National University until her discharge yesterday.
The couple have not ruled out taking another holiday trip to Bali.
