Pawnshop lost Rp 8b in Sunday's robbery

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned Perum Pegadaian pawnshop announced on Friday that the total loss of Sunday's robbery at its branch office on Jl. Wijaya in South Jakarta totaled Rp 8 billion and not the earlier estimate of Rp 4 billion.

The company's director of operations, Dedi Kusdedi, said that the final figure was based on the pawnshop's 20-member audit team, who calculated the value of stolen jewelry, comprising mostly gold and diamonds, pawned by over 3,000 customers.

But he promised all customers would lose nothing from the robbery, which took place on Sunday afternoon.

"The customers will get a cash refund beginning Monday at Pegadaian's main office on Jl. Kramat Raya in Central Jakarta," Dedi told The Jakarta Post.

South Jakarta Police have tentatively named the security guard of the pawnshop as the main suspect in the heist.

South Jakarta Police chief of detectives Capt. Rycko Amelza Daniel said the suspect, Dadi Mulyadi, had vacated his house along with his wife and kids, and their whereabouts were unknown.

"We questioned his elder brother, Makmur, who we believed lent Dadi his motorcycle for the robbery," Rycko told the Post on Friday.

But Makmur insisted that he had not met Dadi for the past two weeks, the officer said.

Rycko and the detectives believed Dadi not only used Makmur's bike to commit the crime, but also returned it to Makmur later.

"That motorcycle is now with Makmur. We're still looking into the case," he added.

Rycko said police officers had focused their investigation on the interrogation of the two security officers of the pawnshop branch office.

Dedi said that 99 percent of the things pawned at the Kebayoran Baru office were mostly diamond and gold jailer.

"This must have been preplanned, but I can't say for sure," Rycko said, adding that police were still tracking Dadi and his family.

Dedi Kusdedi said that a security guard of the branch office had informed him that the robbery was committed by at least two men who broke into the office through the steel gates of the pawnshop.

Dedi, however, did not name the guard from the branch office.

Police, on the other hand, suspected from the beginning that the security guard played a major role in the pawnshop heist.

The robbery at the pawnshop is believed to be the first one of this year. (ylt)