Four questioned over an armed robbery in Cilandak

JAKARTA (JP): Cilandak Police detectives are questioning four witnesses in connection with an early Monday morning robbery in which five suspected robbers got away with one kilogram of gold bars and jewelry, Rp 15 million (US$2,150) and $1,000 in cash from a shop-house on Jl. Fatmawati in South Jakarta, the subprecinct chief said.

Maj. Nurhayati said on Monday that one of the witnesses, a marine officer, saw the five suspects hurriedly getting into an angkot (public minivan), despite the fact that they were being chased by local residents.

"I have a feeling the angkot driver must have been in on the robbery, if they really did get into an angkot, that is," Nurhayati told reporters at the Cilandak subprecinct.

"We had our police dogs search the shop-house and about a 100- meter radius around the crime scene. At least two machetes were retrieved in the area. One of them was at a food stall nearby the shop-house. One of the robbers must have just thrown it there."

The robbers, Nurhayati said, had climbed from the back of the Dwi Jaya shop-house onto the roof where they broke the lock of a door which lead to a staircase going into the house.

"The back of the house is just an open field which leads to a nearby bus stop on Jl. Fatmawati. The robbers left the same way they came in ... They broke open the door on the roof leading into the shop-house," Nurhayati said.

"Once the door was open, they slowly deactivated the alarm system and broke the lock on an iron door that blocks part of the staircase. They then went into the house, got into the master bedroom and threatened to kill anybody who made a noise," she said.

"They robbed everything from a suitcase lying in a cupboard in the master bedroom."

Nurhayati identified the victims as Rusianto, 52, his wife, Sinah, his daughter Theresia, his nephews A Siang and Tong Chai, and their maid, Nasiwan.

At the Dwi Jaya shop-house, which lies opposite the Retna clinic and apothecary, Rusianto told reporters that the family had just returned on Sunday night from Marunda in North Jakarta, following Christmas dinner with relatives there.

"We were all sleeping soundly in our bedrooms. Suddenly, I saw three dark shadows in my room telling me that nobody would be hurt ... that they just wanted money. They had shiny machetes with them," Rusianto said.

He said that two other robbers then entered the room with the rest of the family.

"It was about 2:45 a.m.," Rusianto said.

While Rusianto's wife, daughter, nephews and maid were told to lie face down on the master bed, where they were all tied with bed sheets, a robber took a mattress from an adjacent room, laid it on the master bedroom floor and told Rusianto to lie on it face down. He was also tied up with a bed sheet.

"They just opened the cupboard ... kept on speaking in a thick Batak accent, started emptying the drawers very noisily, removed the clothes from the cupboard and found a suitcase. They asked my wife for the combination number of the lock on the suitcase and she gave it to them," Rusianto said.

The robbers took the money and the gold from the suitcase.

Rusianto and Sinah said they noticed one of the robbers was only in his T-shirt and underwear.

"I have no idea why this one man was only in his underwear. It must have been really wet and muddy at the back of the house. I was just scared that these people would do something to my daughter," Rusianto said.

After getting the loot, the robbers went to the shop, broke open the door and took some rambutan fruit from an old box. They then laid the fruit on the living room table and ate them.

When they were just leaving through the same door they came back in and one robber called out: "Do you have any rice?"

At this, Sinah told them that they should look for it themselves in the kitchen.

As the robbers climbed down the roof, a neighbor who had gotten up to have his sahur (the pre-fasting meal during the Ramadhan fasting month) spotted the robbers and screamed: Robbers! Robbers!

While some banged on Rusianto's door to warn him, other neighbors ran after the robbers, who had by then broken into a run and got as far as a bus stop where they got on an angkot.

Sinah said that this was the third robbery at their house.

"The previous two robberies also happened around the time of the fasting month," Sinah said. (ylt)