DRIVERS have been warned to stay alert when driving through Dongguan after a number of truck drivers were robbed of their drivers licenses and other transport documents in the past two weeks.
The Southern Metropolis Daily quoted the robbed drivers saying the robbers called them later asking for about 1,000 yuan (US$150) in exchange for the documents.
Most drivers chose to pay to get their licenses back, the paper said.
It is now a busy period for truck drivers like me. We need our licenses and other transport documents to do business. So paying the money is the easiest way to avoid affecting our business, said a truck driver identified as Ge who works for a freight transport company in Shenzhen.
Ge, who carries goods between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, was robbed of his driver s license and other documents Dec. 28 in Dalingshan. I was robbed after I got out of my truck under a flyover on Shida Road to answer the call of nature.
He said his truck was sandwiched between two cars, one in front and one behind, while four other men stopped him from approaching his truck.
I saw two other men climb into my truck and take my bag where I had put my driver s license and other travel documents. I couldn t move. Although they didn t produce a weapon, all of them had both their hands in their pockets which were bulging. I was afraid they would take out knives or something like that to hurt me.
Ge said the robbers didn t take the cash he was carrying. Obviously they targeted the documents.
He was called on the phone the next day, asking him to pay 1,200 yuan for the documents he had lost the previous night. The deal was closed with Ge paying 800 yuan and two cartons of expensive cigarettes, he said.
Five of Ge s colleagues were also robbed in Dongguan in recent weeks and also paid to get their driver s licenses back.
The paper said the deals were done through a hole in a wire fence in a deserted neighborhood near Nantou Checkpoint.
I saw their faces, but they were on the other side of the wire fence and thus not afraid of being caught, said another truck driver identified as Cheng who works for another transport company in Shenzhen. Cheng was robbed on Huancheng Road in Dongguan 10 days ago. He paid 1,500 yuan for the return of his driver s license and other documents.
(SD News)
