Hi, there. I'm Kantaroth, and I'm a budding freelance writer.

I'm writing an article which I will sell to my local newspaper. It's about a "Crime Syndicate" operating in my local Airport (Medan, Indonesia). This is based on a true story, as they have been many a victims fallen prey to this syndicate.

Is this article good enough for publishing?

Here goes:



Cases of missing goods are usually blamed to the owner of the goods.

The Lost and Found section usually advised the owner to be more careful in handling their personal property and was asked to pay more attention when supervising their things.

However, this wasn’t the case in Polonia Airport, Medan, Indonesia. My mom had lost her mp3 player, but not because of carelessness or disorganization. The one that happened to my mother was daylight robbery.

And it’s very obvious.

Firstly, my mother is a very careful person. She is very organized, and is not the type of person who would leave things about scattered all over the place.

Secondly, she had placed and zipped her mp3 player inside her luggage and checked it in via the Malaysia Airlines in Polonia Airport. On board to Penang, Malaysia. Now, Malaysia Airlines is a world-class air service, and it should provide safety for both it’s passengers lifes and luggages.

Lifes, Yes. Luggages? Not in Medan, Indonesia.

Upon arrival in Penang, my mom wanted to retrieve the mp3 player from her luggage in order to listen to her favourite artist.

To her horror, her mp3 player had dissapeared. The thieves had taken it STRAIGHT out of her luggage, and left the carrying case open wide. My mom was in a state of shock. Holding the case for about 10 minutes. As if she was experiencing flashbacks of having a good time listening music with her mp3 player. Now, those times are gone.

I helped her to file a complain. She was very furious. Calling her travel agency back in Medan to tell the security in Polonia airport about the missing mp3 player. She also filed a complain to the Lost and Found in the airport in Penang.

This wasn’t the first time she had lost an item from flights.

Many months ago, her money was stolen. Such is the evil of these thieves that they actually have the nerves to pick the lock of my mom’s luggage, and stuff inside their pockets whatever pleases their inner greed.

The Modus Operandi was exactly the same with how her mp3 was stolen. They had left her wallet storing the money open. The wallet is there, but no money.



Now I can’t stress this out enough, but locked or not locked is still the same. We are bound to lose something while checking in Polonia Airport. Unless if we are using that SGD29.50 Heavy Duty Padlocks with 2 inch thick keys. Something the interpol is also using to transfer things.

Now, by this point you’ll be wondering “Did she lock her luggage?”. So, if you think that locking your luggages with padlocks is a form of safety from thieves peeking into your luggages looking for an opportunity, that’s one thing. However, this isn’t my point.

My point is that lock or no lock, these thieves doesn’t actually deserve any right to open and steal things from people’s luggages. It’s not theirs. So, they even have no right to open and inspect a particular luggage unless under supervision of the owner.

But there wasn’t a single news about a thief being caught. And these people were not even punished for stealing. So since they know that they won’t be punished, they actually took advantage of this to grab whatever they can.

Take Singapore Changi Airport for example. My mom checked in the same luggage from which she had lost her mp3. Nothing happened. None of her items were stolen.

After filing a report, the people in Polonia Airport actually have the nerves blamed it to the custom officers in Penang. Our family had never experienced a stolen item case in Penang, so it’s highly unlikely that the custom officers in Penang had actually stolen anything from the passengers luggage before. And my mom had her belongings stolen not once, but twice. All in Medan, Indonesia.

Of course this people would not confess. But I suspect the thieves must be collaborating with the custom officers in Polonia airport, added with the fact that this happened when my mom was checking in via Malaysia Airlines shows that in Indonesia, even an internationally acclaimed flight company could not guarantee if your goods are safe from roberry.

Hence, this is the “Crime Syndicate” operating in Polonia that have been lurking for years. My mom wasn’t the only victim, many others had their things stolen from luggages as well. Locked or not locked. Their modus operandi is too perfect for this case to become simple petty thief. There is definitely a collaboration going on in the airport, and these thieves are just too evil to confess it.