Ex-marine steals to outdo brass

BOGOR (JP): A former marine currently in police custody over a Rp 1.8 billion robbery that left two people dead has admitted that he robbed to prove to his former supervisors in the Navy that he could lead a better life than they.

"I am a former marine. My (former) senior often mocked me, saying that outside the Navy, I would be a vagrant. That motivated me to work really hard," Antono Dwi, 36, told reporters at Bogor Police Headquarters on Wednesday.

Antono was dismissed from the Navy because he had two wives.

He said that in 1995, along with his father-in-law, he opened a scrap business where he lived, at Gunung Putri, Bogor. At first, he only bought scrap iron from scavengers but subsequently he handled scrap from the demolition of old buildings, located as far away as Magelang, Central Java, and Madiun, East Java.

The business started to suffer when a building that he was working on collapsed and damaged three cars. He had to pay out Rp 45 million in compensation, which led him to bankruptcy.

"At that time, I was asked (to participate in the robbery) and I immediately said 'yes,'" he said.

He admitted to receiving Rp 120 million from the robbery.

However, he denied that he had killed the victims, saying that that had been done by one of his accomplices who is still at large.

Antono, who was arrested in Surabaya last week, was among 10 suspects in the theft of Rp 18 billion that was transported from Lippo Bank to PT Great River in Bogor on Aug. 31. A police officer and a Bank Lippo security guard were killed in the incident.

Police have also arrested six other suspects that include two security guards from PT Great River.

Three others, identified as Beny, Jacky and Henky, are still at large.

Antono said that the robbery had been planned two weeks beforehand. They found out about the transportation of cash from Lippo Bank to PT Great River from Adi Setyo, a security officer at the company.

"I am really sorry. I beg the police's forgiveness for what I have done. It all happened because I had fallen on hard times and was worried too much about my families' future, but now I've simply destroyed it," he said. (21)