JEDDAH, 16 February 2005 — A flat tire saved a car from being dismantled by thieves after being stolen from the Al-Thagr district last Saturday morning.
Around 8 a.m., Abdullah Uwaid Al-Harbi, a Jeddah police officer, who lived in the same neighborhood, said he saw a Mazda 323 with two young men in it parked bumper to bumper with a black Peugeot. He was familiar with the car as it belonged to a neighbor, but he was not familiar with the two youths.
“The two men looked very suspicious,” said Al-Harbi who was off duty and with his family. He challenged them and asked them what they were doing. They replied that they were looking for a wire.
He dropped off his family and returned to the scene, but by the time he arrived the men already started the black Peugeot and were driving away, followed by the Mazda.
Al-Harbi followed them and demanded that they stop. The two men seemed to panic and began to drive aggressively at Al-Harbi’s car, almost forcing him into the path of an oncoming pickup truck.
To escape, the two men split and drove in separate directions and disappeared. Al-Harbi called his police colleagues and reported the incident.
Around 12:30 p.m. the same day the Peugeot was found parked on the side of the road in Al-Samer district (located on the east side of the Makkah Expressway) with a flat tire.
Police reported that apparently the tire was punctured before the thieves could take the car to the far east of Jeddah where a number of stolen cars have been found dismantled.
One police official said as a general rule if a small car was stolen, it is a good policy to look for it in the far east of Jeddah; if you lose a Jeep, look for it in Yemen or south of the Kingdom.
“Nothing was missing from the car except my cassettes,” said Ayman Al-Ahmadi, the 22-year-old owner of the car. “Thank God the tire went flat.”
