SHOCK KIDNAP IN BANGSAR: 20-mth old baby grabbed, British mom slashed fighting back

UPDATE3 KUALA LUMPUR - The 18-month-old son of a British expatriate was abducted in broad daylight in affluent Bangsar on Friday evening by a machete-wielding couple who drove off with the toddler in a white Toyota Camry.

The family lives next door to N Surendran, a prominent lawyer and Member of Parliament for Padang Serai.

"My next-door neighbour's 20-mth-old baby Freddy, kidnapped just now in broad daylight in Bangsar," Surendran gave the alert on Twitter.

Nurul Izzah, the Member of Parliament for the area, also took to the social media to sound the alarm. She appealed to members of the public to keep watch and call the police if they spot any unusual or suspicious activity.

"They are a British family and the baby was taken from the house with the mother nearby. The mother, Sarah Joesph, was slashed fighting back," Nurul told Malaysia Chronicle, expressing her shock and outrage at the incident.

A lively child

According to Surendran, the mother is a language teacher and apart from the slash injury to her arm, her toe was also broken.

"We hope the police will put in all efforts to find the baby soon. He is a lively and happy child. I often see him playing in the porch area of the house," Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.

The incident is believed to have occurred around 6.20pm.

Captured on CCTV, mother injured and traumatized

CCTV footage obtained from a neighbor’s house showed a white car driving past Sarah's double-storey link in Jalan Terasek 7 at around 6pm before making a U-turn.

A man came out of the car, put on a baseball cap and spectacles before walking towards the house.

A few moments later, the man was seen running to the car with a baby in his arms. The passenger door of the car was then opened by somebody inside, to whom the man passed the baby to.

Sarah was seen running after the man, screaming. Two passers-by then went to her aid and managed to pull Freddy half out of the car.

However, the man came out and threatened them with the machete.

Sarah was then seen clinging onto the car when it drove off. She was dragged for a few metres before she finally fell down.

It is believed that the person in the car was a woman, who was wearing a niqab (a Muslim veil that covers the face, showing only the eyes).

The 38-year-old Sarah, who is believed to be separated from her husband, is still too traumatized to speak to the press.

The police have gone to her house and spent over two hours dusting for fingerprints and looking for leads into the case.

Who can feel safe in their homes?

The latest kidnap case is bound to ignite public indignation with the police, who have come under fire for a recent spate of crime.

Many Malaysians, especially in urban areas such as Bangsar, generally feel dissatisfied with their police. Some even accuse their men in blue of being corrupt and trigger-happy. However, the majority in the force seem to be dedicated workers who try their best to overcome tough working conditions.

The police chiefs too are often accused of being tied to the apron-strings of Prime Minister Najib Razak's government.

Indeed, the Najib administration has been blamed for the rise in crime by not allocating enough resources to expand crime-fighting units, while channeling huge chunks of funding into less critical areas and relying on the revival of draconian laws to stem crime and crime-related problems.

"We have been complaining umpteen times that crime is worsening but the authorities are not doing enough. When you have an incident like this, which is so close to home and could happen to any of us, how can we believe the Home Minister when he says crime rate is down or that Malaysia is the safest place in the region. The fact is, we are no longer so safe at all," MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Malaysia Chronicle