Two quad bikes stolen from expat's villa

INDONESIAN expatriate Zaenal Abidin got a rude shock yesterday when he realised his two quad bikes were stolen.

Six months ago the Doha resident of five years had “lost” two of his son’s bicycles.

“As I approached the main door of the villa we share with two other families, from Syria, at 6am, I realised something out of place. In a split second it was apparent that both our quad bikes were missing. Gut wrenching followed next,” he told Gulf Times yesterday.

Fearing that his son will be running late for school, the father-son duo left the villa located in New Rayyan, and after the 11-year old son was dropped off, he proceeded to the nearest police station.

“So at 6.30am, I am at a police station instead of my job, trying to file a report for stolen bikes, a first for me in Qatar,” Abidin continued.

The 350cc Yamaha Banshee of year 2002 and the 250cc Suzuki Ozark of year 2004 were very dear to the South East Asian engineer, as they offered the way out of the “monotonous routine of life.” The used-Yamaha was purchased about a year ago for QR6,000 and the Suzuki eight-months ago for QR7,500.

“Because I’m an engineer I modified the Yamaha after shelling out another two grand. They were off the trolley since I am welding and improving that too,” he explained.

After the filing of the complaint, four officials came to the villa and “looked around” and said they will “look into the matter,” according to Abidin.

“Earlier, my wife heard noise at the back entrance of the villa at around 4am and woke me up after spotting a young boy dressed in the local clothing, with the thobe wrapped around his waist and the head-gear wrapped around his head,” he added.

Half asleep, Abidin “prepared” his digital camera and tried to take a picture of the “hoodlum” from the window but couldn’t find anyone.

“I had the camera nearby because too often group of kids gate-crash all the way to our rooms. Already two of my son’s bicycles have been stolen. But that was six months ago and we had hoped it would stop there,” he said.

No one in the villa heard the sound of bikes being switched on at any time during the night and early morning. Out of the two main gates of the villa, the back entrance, always locked, was found broken into and track of bikes being dragged off the ground, visible all the way outside onto the road.

Incidents of this nature are extremely rare in Qatar.