A 19-year-old traveller’s first solo flight from Indonesia to Malaysia allegedly turned into a frightening experience after he was stopped by Customs over bakso found inside his luggage.
Threads user @brayenngabriel claimed that a female Customs officer gave him two options, either pay RM100 or have the food confiscated.
He only began questioning the payment after returning home, when he realised that the QR code allegedly belonged to a personal account and that he had not received an official receipt.
Stopped over bakso upon arriving in Malaysia
According to the traveller, his luggage passed through checks at the airport in Indonesia without any issues.
However, he was stopped at the Customs inspection area after arriving in Malaysia, where a female officer allegedly asked him what he was carrying inside his luggage.
When the traveller said it contained bakso, the officer reportedly asked him to step aside before inspecting the box containing the food.
After checking its contents, she allegedly told him that bakso was not allowed to enter Malaysia and would have to be confiscated.
This left the traveller confused as his mother had brought the same food from Indonesia to Malaysia several times without encountering any problems.
He added that the officer told him that previous officers might not have been thorough during their inspections.
Allegedly given two options
The traveller alleged that the female officer allegedly gave him two choices: either pay a RM100 compound/fine, or let the bakso be confiscated.
Believing that he might have broken the rules, he chose to make the payment, stressing that he did not knowingly offer a bribe as he believed the RM100 was an official penalty.
After returning home, the traveller noticed that the RM100 had been paid through a QR code linked to a personal account, leading him to have many questions.
He also claimed that he did not receive an official receipt for the payment.
The traveller said he paid because he was scared and did not know how to respond to an officer in a position of authority, adding that it was his first time travelling solo.
“If I had older family members with me, they would have spoken up,” he wrote.
The traveller later submitted a complaint through the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission’s (MACC) complaint portal, with a screenshot shared on Threads showed that the information he submitted had been received.
He said he decided to make the report because he did not want to continue feeling guilty over the incident and reiterated that he would have followed the proper procedure if he had genuinely committed an offence.
Allegedly asked to delete the viral post
After his account of the incident gained attention online, the traveller claimed that an account believed to be the female officer’s contacted him, where she allegedly offered to return the RM100 if he deleted the post.
The officer also apologised and said she did not want the issue to be blown out of proportion.
In a later update, the traveller said the RM100 had been transferred back to him even though he did not provide his account details or QR code, adding the money remains untouched as he waits for the relevant authorities to take action.
At the time of writing, the allegations have not been independently verified and no official response from the Malaysian Customs Department has been sighted.
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