JALAN SULTAN: This is where Chan and his friends apprhended the snatch thief yesterday

In fact, they were so late that the suspect had already been sent to the Dang Wangi police station by a cabbie.

Chan, naturally, was very disappointed with the lack of urgency shown. Narrating his experience to Malay Mail, Chan said he had dropped his children off at a school near Jalan Sultan at 7.50am yesterday before having breakfast at a coffee shop nearby.

“I heard somebody screaming, pencuri (thief) and dashed out of the shop. I saw a man running with a handbag in his hand and a woman behind him screaming for help,” he said. Chan and several friends immediately gave chase and managed to catch the suspect, believed to be a foreigner.

“I phoned the Dang Wangi police station using its direct line to inform the police that we had a suspect in custody. We waited for 15 minutes but no one came.” Chan said he called Dang Wangi again at 8.10am and was shocked when he was told that police were coming late as they were changing shifts.

“I was worried that the crowd, which was getting bigger, would beat up the suspect. A taxi stopped and the driver volunteered to send the suspect to the station accompanied by a security guard from a nearby building.” Chan said at 8.28am, a police car arrived.

“It is baffling as the station is only two minutes away. The police have always maintained that they would respond fast but that was not what happened. Why must they give excuses like changing shifts when they should have sent a patrol car immediately?” he said, adding that it was more disappointing as the public had assisted in nabbing a criminal.