JEDDAH, 18 October 2003 — Police have arrested 16 Saudis and expatriates for committing robberies by impersonating security officers, Okaz reported yesterday.
They included an Arab in police uniform who robbed expatriate workers after asking them to show their IDs at gunpoint.
Col. Yousuf Ali Sayyed, acting director of North Jeddah Police, named the impersonator only as Muhammad, who was carrying the passport of one Khaled Muhammad, a dead compatriot.
Police also arrested two young Saudis who impersonated Passports Department officers.
They asked the guard of a residential building to let them into a flat whose occupants were away. When the guard refused they beat him and fled.
Another impersonator, the paper said, was found stopping cars in a Madinah street and tried to run away when he saw a police van but was later arrested.
In another incident two Saudis emptied the pockets of an Arab expatriate worker by pretending to be members of the anti-drug squad.
Police arrested the two after receiving a complaint from the Arab worker.
Another fake police officer was arrested while he was loitering outside a girl’s college in the city. Investigation revealed that the man, from Taif, had used the trick to get in touch with a girl.
One impersonator told police that he bought the uniform from a shop, adding that the shopkeeper did not ask for his ID.
Meanwhile, police in the central city of Buraidah arrested a gun-wielding man on Thursday night after a long chase involving several patrol cars.
Security agents are now investigating the man, who according to Al-Jazirah newspaper was acting under the influence of alcohol. “It was a strange scene. A patrol police jeep driven by a person wearing civilian dress and wielding a machine gun was speeding through the street chased by a number of patrol policemen,” the Arabic daily said.
A police officer was alerted when he saw a man speeding off in a car after beating another. The officer chased the driver and radioed for backup.
In the meantime, the security operations room received a call from a citizen informing them a man had stolen his car, whose specifications matched the one police were chasing.
“The man stopped the car and came at the security officers wielding his gun. Then the man jumped into a police van and sped away in it toward downtown Buraidah,” the paper said.
Police set up roadblocks all over the city to arrest the man.
The man then left the vehicle and approached the officers wielding his gun. But the security officers were able to overpower him, the paper said.
