The Star/Asia News Network
Saturday, Nov 17, 2012
KOTA KINABALU - Burglars took advantage of the public holiday on Thursday to break into two businesses around town.
In the first case at a telecommunications centre in Lintas Plaza, robbers drilled a hole through the wall to get to the safe.
A worker noticed the hole and the damaged safe at about 7am yesterday and called the police.
Owner Connie Lee said RM20,000 (S$8,039) in cash, three laptops and a smartphone are missing.
The suspect had first broken into an eatery and drilled a hole through a general store next to the centre.
A worker from another shop said he had heard a drilling sound in the evening but ignored it as he thought it was being renovated.
In the second case, a marble and granite dealer at Taman Soon Kiong in Penampang was also broken into.
Chong, an employee at the company, said she was about to open the office at 9am when she noticed the padlock on the front door missing.
“The desktop computer was gone and the office had been ransacked,” she said.
Meanwhile, police have arrested five men, believed to be involved in robbing a goldsmith in Telipok, some 15km from the city.
About RM120,000 worth of goods were also retrieved.
Sabah Commissioner of police Datuk Hamza Taib said the men aged between 25 and 52, who robbed the shop on Nov 3, were arrested separately between Nov 9 and 13 around the state capital.
Investigations found that the mastermind was a 26-year-old ex-convict involved in eight cases of break-ins involving losses of RM233,000 around the city since July. “He was released in March this year and is believed to have committed his first repeat offence four months after the release,” he said after witnessing the handing over of duties from Sabah deputy head of Crime Investigation Department (intelligence/operations) Assist Comm Awang Besar Dullah to Assist Comm Carleel Mohd Effendi.
