Burglars injure housewife with hydrochloric acid

JAKARTA (JP): A housewife was severely wounded after she was splashed with hydrochloric acid by two alleged robbers who broke into her house in Tambun subdistrict, Bekasi, early Saturday.

The two robbers, who entered the house by breaking its front window, managed to take Rp 6 million in cash from the house after paralyzing her husband.

The housewife, identified as Ambar, was treated at the Intensive Care Unit of the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. She explained that she awoke in the morning to loud sounds from the robbers entering the house.

The two immediately entered her bedroom and stood on the left of the bed in which her husband, Karnadi, her youngest child, Tirta, and she slept.

When she cried for help, one of the robbers poured the liquid on her.

She said her eyes became extremely painful, so that "I could not recognize the two men, whose faces were covered with cloth".

She said she heard the two men attack her husband before she fell unconscious.

The acid turned the victim's skin on her face, part of her breast and neck dark brown.

Ambar was later rushed by her relatives to the hospital for immediate treatment.

The two robbers reportedly stole Rp 6 million in cash from a drawer of a wardrobe in the room.

"I didn't hear a motorist or any car sounds when the robbers left the house," said Saidi, one of Ambar's son-in-laws.

Saidi said his parents were among the rich in the area.

Karnadi built several houses adjacent to his house to enable his children and their families to stay close to him, he said.

Saidi said the Rp 6 million money was the result of a sale of the family's motorcycle. It was to be used to buy a pick-up truck worth Rp 20 million to expand the family's business.

Saidi believed that the robbers were people from nearby neighborhoods who were familiar with the family as they knew exactly where the family put their money. (01)