Lawrence Lim wasn’t unduly alarmed early Saturday morning when two police officers on a motorbike signaled to him to pull over.
Then they pulled a revolver and robbed him of $3,000 and his mobile phone.
It was about 1 am when Lim, driving a white Land Cruiser, turned off Mao Tse Tung Boulevard onto Street 388 near the Hotel Inter-Continental.
Lim, a Singaporean who runs the Himoinsa G P Cambodia Co Ltd generator company, had been to a party, and was alone in his car. He said the men were wearing tan police uniforms and berets.
The officers motioned him to get out of the car, and said they were with a special drug enforcement unit and needed to check the car for drugs.
Then they robbed him.
Lim, who has lived in Cambodia for seven years, said he was shocked by the brazen attack. “This is a disgrace to the police force,” Lim said Sunday. “The governor should know about this.”
Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara, told about it Sunday, said the Singaporean Ambassador had complained to him some months back about a similar spate of attacks on Singaporeans.
“I am very concerned about this,” Chea Sophara said. “I will follow up on this.”
Lim said he reported the incident to the police, who sent out officers to investigate but found nothing.
“I think many foreigners have been robbed by these two guys,” he said.
“We are not allowed to have bodyguards with guns, and then this happens.”
Sar Vandy, deputy chief with the foreign police, said Sunday, “We are doing an investigation, but we cannot say if the robbery was by police. Let us investigate first.”
In the past it has not been uncommon for foreigners to complain of being robbed by men in police or military uniforms, which are easily purchased at some of the city’s markets.
