T

he number of violent motorcycle thefts that have occurred in Greater Jakarta in recent weeks has stirred unrest among residents. Some motorcyclists are taking extra precautions to maintain their safety during late night trips home.

Fajar Ginanjar Mukti, a private company employee, said he once slept at his office as he was afraid to go back to his boarding house in Bendungan Hilir, South Jakarta, at around midnight.

'€œA few days ago I finished my work around 11:30 p.m. I did not feel safe to go home that late because I heard that some violent robberies had taken place in Central Jakarta,'€ Fajar told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said he was grateful to be able to finish his work early, so he would not need to spend another night in the office.

Jakarta Police recorded that there were 80 vehicles stolen in Greater Jakarta in January alone. South Jakarta topped the number of crimes with 17 cases, followed by Central Jakarta with eight cases.

Police said the street crimes usually happen at night in deserted areas where there would be no people able to help. However, in some cases the crimes occurred in busy roads, including the one on Jl. Margonda in Depok, West Jakarta.

In the midst of the rising violent motorcycle theft cases, a group of young people is also attempting to raise solidarity by initiating a movement through Twitter to encourage people to go home together in groups at night to minimize the street crimes.

Awang Ditto, 30, said he started the Twitter account @pulangkonvoi (convoying home) on Feb. 23 with his friend Agus Nugraha as they were concerned about the crimes. They also wanted to build a sense of security among the people who commute at night. To date, the account has been followed by more than 7,000 Twitter users.

'€œWe also use motorcycles to go home, so we thought, why we don'€™t also do something to help society?'€ Awang said on Tuesday.

Twitter users who are afraid of going home at night alone can ask other Twitter users who take the same direction to travel together by mentioning @pulangkonvoi in their tweets, naming a meeting point and appointment time.

'€œWhen we get a mention, we will retweet it and can keep tabs on who goes home with whom. We will also urge them to take a group selfie before they go together, so we are able to know each of their convoy members,'€ Awang said.

However, most followers who have taken part in the movement had not uploaded group selfies, so he Awang said he would try to do more to encourage them to do so.

Haris Prasetyo, 31, was one of the motorcyclists who felt anxious about going home to his parents'€™ house in Depok, West Java. He said that before the series of motorcycle thefts got his attention he used to go home at 12 midnight to avoid traffic jams.

'€œNowadays, I always try to go home when the sky isn'€™t dark yet,'€ he said.

He said he hoped more people would become aware of the @pulangkonvoi account and travel together.

'€œI tried to mention @pulangkonvoi once and asked others who go in the same direction as me to travel together. However, I got no reply,'€ he said,

He said that might have been caused by the fact that many people did not know about the Twitter account, which was then less than two weeks old.

Jakarta Police said last week that gangs of thieves who had seriously injured and even killed their victims usually operated in Jakarta'€™s outskirts, like in Depok, Bekasi in West Jakarta, Tangerang and South Tangerang in Banten.