Local Bali Woman Arrested For Stealing Thousands Of Dollars From An Expat

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A 60-year-old local woman named Erni Harum Cahyani has been arrested after stealing a large amount of money from a French expat.

The Head of Denpasar Public Relations Officer, Iptu I Ketut Sukadi confirmed that Erni was arrested for stealing money from a 73-year-old expat, Christian Moussier. “The suspect who is originally from Bogor, West Java was arrested from her boarding house in Denpasar after 2 weeks of investigation.” Iptu Sukadi said on Sunday (31/10). Prior to the incident, Erna and Christian had arranged a date at a villa that is located in Ubud on September 27^th 202, after getting to know each other through an online dating app.

After meeting up and briefly visiting at the villa, they both went to the Bintang Supermarket that is located in Ubud to buy groceries. When the victim paid the cashier using his debit card, the suspect apparently managed to see his pin number. Shortly after, when they were back at the villa, the suspect stole Christian’s debit card while he was asleep on the villa’s balcony. The victim realized that his debit card was gone when he attempted to pay for his dinner in Ubud on Tuesday evening (28/9). Once he got back to his place in Denpasar on Wednesday (29/10), Christian called the bank to cancel his card and was surprised as the bank told him that someone had withdrawn a total of USD 3,274 (IDR 46,5 million) with his card.

“The suspect managed to steal thousands of dollars from the victim by illegally using his debit card to withdraw money. The suspect attempted a total of 14 transactions.” Iptu Sukadi added. Shortly after, the victim filed a report to the police in regards to the incident, and after a couple of weeks of investigating, the suspect was finally arrested from her house that is located on Jalan Gunung Lebah, West Denpasar on Friday, October 15^th, 2021 and will potentially be charged with 5 years of imprisonment.

“During the interrogation, the suspect admitted that she had spent the money on jewelry, paying off some of her debts and she started a new business.” Iptu Sukadi concluded.