Illegal to keep benda lucah on phone? This guy was caught in a police spot check

Not too long ago, we came across this Reddit post by user u/BuangSajeAcc791346 (a temporary account, hence the tongue twister name) where he talked about being stopped and searched by the police.

The real kicker here is that the police not only randomly searched both him and his friend, but even went through their phones 😱 We immediately reached out to get more info but unfortunately, he hadn’t responded. So bear in mind what we have so far are unconfirmed details.

Police quietly followed these guys to basement car park for spot check

Add some creepy music and change the setting to nighttime and this would’ve been the start to a 90s horror flick. Seriously. According to the post, BuangSaje and his friend were returning from lunch and approaching his apartment when they were flagged down by the police.

At first it seemed like nothing much, just some routine generic questions. But things took a turn when the police actually tailed them all the way to the apartment’s basement car park. The guys were given no other explanation, other than the police were simply conducting a spot check.

“The policemen got out of the their car and declared that they were making a random spot check. They asked for our IC and used their flashlights to have a better look at the backseats of the car as well,”

But it didn’t stop there cos rather than the quick inspection that was hinted, BuangSaje and his friend were physically searched themselves! Like they were actually told to empty their pockets and police even patted them down.

Now we don’t know bout y’all, but that’s kinda scary, no? Especially in a place as isolated as a car park.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

Police happened to find explicit content on one of their phones

Having completed the body search, BuangSaje and his friend were asked to hand over their phones, which they both did despite feeling uncomfortable about the whole thing.

“I know people would say “You shouldn’t let them do that”, “It’s your privacy” and all that, but when you’re alone in a somewhat quiet basement parking, you’d really just to want get it over with quickly,”

BuangSaje explained that the police went through all his folders with a fine tooth comb, from his downloaded apps to the photos in his gallery, so much so he felt his privacy was invaded.

And while things ended well enough for him, his friend wasn’t as lucky. Police apparently found a bunch of explicit materials on his phone, and as y’all know, it’s illegal in Malaysia to possess these kinda things even if it’s just for your own eyes.

Desperate to stay out of prison, BuangSaje’s friend took his chance and offered the police some duit kopi. It took a lot of back-and-forth bargaining, but they eventually settled on a sum of RM3000. Yeah, the irony of it wasn’t lost on us either.

But at the end of the day, it was the fact that the police actually approached them and asked for their phones that got us curious. So we did a bit of research to see if this was something they could do, and…

Police do actually have the right to look through our phones

…but it comes with a couple of conditions that the police first need to fulfill. You can head over to this AskLegal article to get the full rundown, but basically;

1. The police need to have a justified reason for approaching you
2. One of the police doing the checks needs to be ranked an Inspector or above.

Now let’s try and break these conditions down one by one. So right after that initial Reddit post was written, someone else got in trouble for the same thing. Now it could be a coincidence, or it could also mean there’s an ongoing crackdown and police are actively searching for wrongdoers— which might be the reason they’re inspecting phones. Regardless, if you find yourself in this situation, you should still definitely ask why, as is your right.

The second condition is more straightforward, meaning it’s easier to determine whether the spot check is valid or not. Sure it can be scary and even mafan to stand up to the police, but this is really the only way if you wanna safeguard your privacy.