Highway Samaritans trick man into expensive car ‘repairs’

When P Gonapersonal’s car broke down on the North-South highway recently, he was offered help by what seemed to be ‘good samaritans’, only to know later that it was all a trick to fleece his money.

On August 6 last year at around 11am, Gonapersonal, 62, was driving his family from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur in a Proton Wira along the North South highway and his car suddenly broke down near the Nilai toll plaza at Negeri Sembilan.

Two men in their thirties, claiming to be mechanics, showed up at the scene and offered to take a look at his car.

Upon initial examination, they notified him that repairs would cost RM135 and that the car needs to be towed to their workshop, which, according to them was located near the Nilai toll plaza.

It was only the start of a merry-g0-round for Gonapersonal.

As a gesture of ‘goodwill’, the mechanics said that they would only charge Gonapersonal a minimal towing fee.

The ‘nearby’ workshop, it turned out, was located at Taman Seremban Jaya in Senawang, some one hour away from the place where the car broke down.

At the workshop, the repairs cost quoted by the mechanics shot up to RM 700, and in return they offered to lean Gonapersonal a car so that he could continue his trip to Kuala Lumpur with his family.

Gonapersonal agreed on the RM700 repair cost and started off his journey to Kuala Lumpur with the loaned car.

He was only half-way through the journey when Gonapersonal received a call from one of the mechanics, who was now quoting a sum of RM 1,700.

Suspecting that something was amiss, he called off the repair works.

He came back the next day to the workshop and was shocked when the mechanic demanded RM1,700 from him, claiming that the car has been repaired despite Gonapersonal’s lack of approval.

An argument ensued and the mechanic agreed to reduce the repair cost to RM1,500.

It took the car only two days before it broke down again, and this time he sent the car to a Kuala Lumpur-based workshop.

The total cost of repair was only RM175 this time and the car has been running smoothly ever since.

Gonapersonal said he felt cheated by the Senawang workshop mechanics. He had lodged a police report against the workshop on August 8.

He subsequently lodged another report at the Ungku Tun Aminah police station on February 25.