Four robbed at Hotel Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Four people lost their purses Saturday afternoon outside the Reog Room on the eighth floor of Hotel Indonesia. The four young women were assigned to receive guests entering the Reog Room, where a meeting among Moslem youth of Southeast Asian countries was taking place.

"They had left their bags to have lunch," Indah, a member of the organizing committee for the Sunda Kelapa Moslem Youths, said. She added that they had felt it safe to leave their bags because there was a security guard near their seats and table, which was located between the lifts and the entrance to the Reog Room.

When they returned, their purses, which the victims said contained from Rp 20,000 to Rp 60,000, had disappeared.

Burhan of the hotel's security department said it was impossible for the security guards to watch everyone coming and going. He also pointed out that the guards could not have guessed which persons were not related to the event.

"This has never happened before," he said.

Not long after the loss was reported, security guards found one purse, a Rp 10,000 note and an ID card in the waste basket of the ladies' room. (anr)