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.