Maids injured but burglary foiled

Maids injured but burglary foiled

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two domestic helpers managed to foil a burglary attempt on Monday
morning at a luxury home at Jl. Pejaten Barat II No. 16 in Pasar
Minggu, South Jakarta.

But one of them suffered a serious injury to his neck and was
taken to Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta.

The domestic staff -- Hufron, 34, and Turiman, 30, -- were
minding the house of Farida Gerung, 62, when seven armed men
attempted to break in at around 3 a.m. by jumping over the fence.

Upon seeing the seven men trying to enter the house, Hufron
cried for help but one of the intruders attacked him with a
machete.

He fell down, badly injured, but his cries woke Turiman who
immediately shouted to attract attention.

Alarmed by the cries, that might be heard by the neighbors,
the would-be burglars fled the scene empty handed.

Five of the intruders managed to escape but two of them -- who
hid in a tunnel nearby to avoid an angry mob -- were eventually
caught by the people.

The mob, who found their hideout, closed both ends of the
tunnel. Both intruders, later identified as Solihin and Didin,
chose to stay in the tunnel, but six hours later they finally
gave up at around 9 a.m.

Unfortunately, the mob was still very angry and started to
beat them once they got out of the tunnel. The two were saved by
police officers who came to the scene after the mob called them.

Pasar Minggu Police subprecinct chief of detectives First
Insp. Sapardi told reporters that based on information from the
two arrested suspects, the seven men had planned to break into
Farida's house as they believed that she kept a lot of money in
her house.

"Solihin told police investigators that his friend, Jono, had
invited them to join the burglary attempt. Jono claimed that he
knew that Farida had just sold her land in Mangga Dua, Central
Jakarta, and kept the cash at home," he said.

Jono is among the five intruders who are still at large.

Police seized a machete, a knife and a sword from those
arrested.

Burglary tops the list of crimes in the capital with 2,955
cases reported to the police as of June this year.

Last year, police recorded 4,567 burglary cases, a slight
decline by 10 percent from 5,093 cases in 2001.