It's almost safer these days to leave your motorbike key with a complete stranger than with a friend.

In the latest case of its kind, a 17-year-old was arrested on Sunday for making off with his pal’s moto in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district.

Police said the owner trusted his friend to take his moto to his sister’s house while he visited his sick mother.

Instead, the “friend” went joy-riding indefinitely. After a month at large, the owner spotted him and threw a bear hug around him until police arrived. Alas, the moto was already long sold. KOH SANTEPHEAP