A man in full Royal Malaysian Navy uniform was involved in a high-speed car chase early Wednesday (1st June) morning with an assemblage of weapons in his white van; only that he wasn’t a navy man, and the weapons were all fake.
The man, identified as a 41-year-old salesman from Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, was speeding along the expressway in Malacca when police spotted him. He was then flagged down, but refused to stop, ensuing in a 2km high-speed chase before he finally gave up.
The salesman was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru.
He identified himself as a high-ranking Naval officer and even showed his authority card, but police did not believe him. Extra reinforcements from Alor Gajah were called in as they found a cache of weapons, including machine guns, shotguns, a grenade launcher, and a whole lot of ammunition, in the vehicle.
The weapons were found to be imitation goods from Hong Kong. After interrogation, the salesman admitted that he got the items and identification card from a store in Masjid India, Kuala Lumpur.
Malacca police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Ramli Din reassured the public that they would run a check at the store to ensure that any syndicates dealing with military and police uniforms would be eradicated.
The full list of weapons are as follows:
- 3 shotguns
- 2 imitation guns
- a grenade launcher
- magazines
- bullets
- a bullet-proof jacket with the Navy’s emblem
- a walkie-talkie
In 2012, the same man was charged and jailed for 6 months for illegally trespassing the Terendak Camp in Masjid Tanah by posing as a military personnel. He had wanted to impress his friend by accessing the camp with his fake authority card.
They did manage to enter, but were stopped before they could enter the firing range some 600 metres from the entrance. An array of counterfeit military equipment, including forged security passes from the Foreign Minister and The Prime Minister’s Department, were found in their car boot.
It seems like an unfulfilled ambition to join the armed forces led to his obsession of pretending to be a military man. The unnamed salesman’s wife and in-laws were also under the illusion that he was a high-ranking naval officer until his arrest in 2012.
Several years ago, the man applied to join the armed forces, but his application was denied. However, that didn’t stop him from toting fake arms since he was 25 years old.
