We know Malaysia GE coming when Singapore is being bashed for no reason. We know Hari Raya is coming when crime rates are high and police are on the ball to fine Singaporean with "no receipt" for the slightest thing to settle the offence.
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian gang that targets ATMs has struck again, this time carting away over a million ringgit (S$400,000) by breaking into four ATMs at a hypermarket.
The theft is believed to have occurred between midnight and 7am at Carrefour Hypermarket in Wangsa Maju, a major town in Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday.
The thieves accessed the hypermarket by drilling a hole from the basement carpark.
Police officer Othman Abu Bakar said the thieves used a blowtorch to open four out of six ATMS located on the ground floor of the hypermarket.
They then escaped with RM1.17 million through the hole.
Mr Othman said a security guard on his rounds spotted the hole at 7am. Further checks revealed that the closed-circuit television cameras had been tampered with.
The thieves have been dubbed the "Oxy Gang", because their modus operandi involves using oxy-fuel (commonly called
oxyacetylene or oxy welding torches), that burns fuel gases with oxygen, to cut through ATMs. Security guard Marsued Martaib, 55, did not suspect anything amiss when he reported for work at 7am.
"I realised what had happened only two hours later, when a few policemen asked me where the ATMs were located," he said.
This has been the fourth reported case of theft from ATMs since last month. On June 22, thieves broke open an ATM at another hypermarket, stealing more than RM80,000. Two other ATMs were carted away last month.