Murder attempt leads to car theft gang

An Arab car thief stalking a new victim met an Asian driver in Musaffah industrial area in Abu Dhabi and requested a lift to the western town of Ruwais for Dh500.

In a deserted area, he asked the driver to stop so he can move to the back seat to have some sleep during the two-hour trip. Once he was in the back seat and the driver set off, he put his left hand on the driver’s mouth and used his right hand to stab him in the neck and waist.

The driver was taken off guard by the sudden attack and quickly realized he could die if he resisted. Summing up his courage and energy, he kicked the door, limped out and started running away.

The 38-year-old Arab, a jobless with an expired visa, did not bother follow him, so he just started the car and drove away with his new loot.

At hospital in Marfa later, the 33-year-old Asian driver gave police the man’s descriptions. His picture was then circulated among police patrols before they managed to locate him in another emirate. The car was later found near Silaa area close to the border with Qatar after it was crippled by an accident.

“We arrested him in that emirate while two accomplices, a 28-year-old Arab and 27-year-old African, were seized,” said Brigadier Hamad al Dahiri, director of the police department in Abu Dhabi’s Western region.

He said the three had eluded police by stealing seven rented cars and selling them for between Dh4,000 and Dh10,000 each.

 “They all confessed to their crimes…they said they sold the cars to persons whom they did not know,” he told Alkhaleej daily.

Fake dollars in tea package

A customs employee checking hundreds of incoming shipments at Dubai’s sprawling cargo village was about to let a package of tea bags pass before he became curious about the unusual bulge in the parcel.

When he checked the package, he was even more surprised to find that it contains more than mere tea bags.

“Stuffed among the tea bags were nearly $94,800 fake dollar notes, which belonged to a mechanic who tried to smuggle them into Dubai,” the Sharjah-based Arabic language daily Alkhaleej said.

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