17YO Learnt How to Hot-Wire Motorcycles from YouTube to Steal Them with Friends

By
Shawn Ambrose
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You can do a lot of things on YouTube.

Learn how to cook, watch cute cats play with other cute cats, watch YouTubers cry while making apology videos, and be entertained by skits.

But one 17-year-old used the video sharing platform for something a little different: learning to steal motorbikes.

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17YO Youth Stole $10,000 Bike With Friend

On 13 Sept last year, a 17-year-old teenager went to a multi-storey carpark in Admiralty Drive along with 19-year-old Mohamad Syafiq Mohamad Jeffery and another friend.

While most people go to the carpark to get into their own vehicle, the youths headed there to steal someone else’s.

In the end, they decided on a purple Yamaha YZF-R15 motorcycle, which is worth around S$10,000.

The 17-year-old cut the ignition wires and hot-wired the bike to get the engine going, and his friend Syafiq rode it to a friend’s house some time between 1am and 3am. Syafiq did not have a licence at the time.

Later that day, the gang met up again at a carpark in Canberra Road to spray the stolen bike black in a bid to disguise it.

This time, however, when they tried hot-wiring the bike, it wouldn’t start, so they abandoned it at the carpark.

At this point, the trio had two options:

  1. Realise that breaking the law is not cool and own up to their offences
  2. Literally anything but steal another bike

Naturally, they stole another bike.

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In the evening that day, Syafiq and the 17-year-old teen headed to a multi-storey carpark in Wellington Circle in Sembawang where they spotted the same Yamaha model but in silver and blue.

Just as before, the teen hot-wired it and Syafiq swapped the licence plate of the bike with another licence plate he found in the carpark.

After discovering his vehicle had gone missing, the owner of the blue bike lodged a police report but later found it in Yishun.

Earlier, police also found the spray-painted black bike which was abandoned at the carpark without a licence plate. Suspecting it to be stolen, they used the vehicle’s registration number to find the owner.

Teen Learnt Hot-wiring On Youtube; Sentenced to Reformative Training for Theft

It turns out that the 17-year-old learnt how to hot-wire motorcycles by watching YouTube videos just so he could steal bikes with his friends.

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He cannot be named since he’s under 18.

The court sentenced the teen to at least a year of reformative training, where he will be detained at a centre. There, he will be under a strict regimen which includes foot drills and counselling.

Unsurprisingly, he was also prohibited from holding all classes of driving licences for a year from the date of his release.

His accomplice, Syafiq, was sentenced to 1.5 years of supervised probation and banned from holding all classes of driving licences during that period.

The case of the third youth is pending. He will be dealt with separately.

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In court, the judge advised the two youths to stay away from friends who are bad influences and focus on their studies.

What Exactly is Hot-wiring?

For those who don’t know, hot-wiring is the process of bypassing a motor vehicle’s ignition switch so the engine can be started without a key.

The method is often used during a vehicle theft, but some vehicle owners who have lost their vehicle key or faced other troubles have also resorted to it.

However, hot-wiring is known to be dangerous and can damage the vehicle.

If you’re looking to learn something from Youtube, why not learn something legal? Watch this video to the end to learn about the unconventional Spotify tips & tricks:

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]