KUALA LUMPUR: "Pay us or we will smash your wind screen."
It has come to that with "ulat parkir" (parking pests) who prey on motorists in several areas of the city, especially where parking space is limited.
Office workers here recall that these pests used to ask for a few ringgit to "guard" your car. Now it's outright extortion. A 29-year-old administrative officer relates a recent incident when she parked her car in Jalan Maharajalela where she works for a government agency.
"A tall, thin teenager demanded 20 ringgit from me," said Wong Siow Wei. "I asked him why I should give him the money. He pointed at two cars, one with a smashed windscreen, and the other with four punctured tyres. I paid up."
That was the last time Wong parked her Myvi at that place. She now parks her car about a kilometre from her office. Wong said she hasn't recovered fully from her bad experience. "I still see a few 'ulat parkir' in the area, and get very nervous. I just stay away from them," she said.
A Bernama survey showed that the areas the parking pests haunt include Bangsar shopping centres, Dataran Merdeka and Kampung Baru. The pests are mostly below 30 years of age, and are said to include foreigners. Some of them demand money even from those who park in DBKL bays.
Legal officer Siti Nor Haryani Mat Noor said the windscreen of her Viva was smashed one night in Sentul because she did not pay them money. "I saw several young people asking a man for something. I parked my car beside the road and quickly walked to my house nearby," the 27-year-old said.
"The next morning I found the windscreen of my car had been smashed. My Smart Tag had been taken. Two cars parked near mine also had their windscreens smashed."
A private sector retiree Mohd Baharudin Ismail, 61, said her daughter had a traumatic experience when she parked her car in a dark spot at the back of a row of shops in Bangsar. "They (the parking pests) threatened to damage her car if she did not pay them 50 ringgit. She paid them," he said.
Restaurant manager Muhammad Izzat Izudin, 41, said some of his customers had complained to him about having to pay the pests money to park in front of the eating premise in Wangsa Maju. Others told him that they had their cars scratched and their tyres punctured for not paying the pests.
"I see these pests hanging around waiting for victims ...some of them are in their early 20s but most of them are just teenagers," he said. "The way they behave, it is as though they are following orders. I think someone or group is controlling them."
