Greed proves costly for two female shoplifters

JAKARTA (JP): Two women, one of whom is an elderly housewife, have been arrested for allegedly stealing 10 pairs of children's pants at Plaza Tomang Tol store in Kalimalang, East Jakarta.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that 62-year-old Ika Sukarsih and Emmy alias Eem, 37, were caught red-handed by a store security guard with the clothes in their possession.

"They hid the stolen items under their skirts," Aritonang said without explaining the relationship between the two suspects.

The women were captured by security guard Tatang Komara, who followed them on a minibus after they left the store.

Aritonang said Tatang first received a report from one of the store's assistants that some clothes had been stolen and then began to look for the suspects among dozens of customers who flocked the store that morning.

"Later he spotted these two women who acted unnaturally. The two walked in such a strange way by bending their backs most of the time. Tatang did not approach the two, but instead followed them," he said.

Tatang then followed the two suspects into a KWK 37 minibus, where the two began to remove the stolen goods from their skirts.

"Again, Tatang did nothing to the women but asked the driver to immediately turn the vehicle into the nearby Duren Sawit police subprecinct office," Aritonang said.

Police there confiscated six pairs of children's pants from Emmy and four more from Ika.

The two, who were being detained at the Duren Sawit police station, confessed there were two other women who also stole goods from the same store, Aritonang said.

He said that police were now looking for the other two women, whose identities they know. They are believed to have stolen at least two pairs of jeans from the Plaza Tomang Tol store. (cst)