Police close to arrest Glodok stores' thieves

JAKARTA (JP): West Jakarta police are close to arresting the bandits who robbed three shops and made off with Rp 66.6 million (US$30,000) in the Glodok business center, downtown Kota, last month.

The police said they already had the names of all seven suspects and know their whereabouts.

"Some of the group are repeat offenders," chief of the West Jakarta police precinct, Lt. Col. Made Mangku Pastika, told the Jakarta Post last week.

According to Made, most of the suspected thieves are currently hiding "somewhere" in East Java.

"My agents are still monitoring their movements and we hope that this operation can be carried out as expected," he said.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the gangsters dug an underground tunnel about seven meters in length from Jl. Mangga Besar I to get into the first machine equipment store, PT Bukit Baja, which they robbed during the early hours of June 17.

Officers of the Taman Sari police sub-precinct have been quoted as saying that the group then extended their operation to the adjacent stores by climbing through the ceiling.

Police found a hole with a diameter of 1.5 meters in the floor of PT Bukit Baja, two crowbars, a pair of sandals, empty packets of instant noodles and two glasses at the three scenes of crimes.

Owner of PT Bukit Baja claimed that he had suffered a loss cash and property amounting to Rp 5.6 million in the robbery, including a 14-inch television set, a video cassette recorder set and cash.

"Fortunately, the group didn't open another safe in my working room which had Rp 100 million cash in it," said Hargo, 35, the owner.

PT Perintis Logam claimed a loss of Rp 400,000 in cash while PT Sumber Makmur claimed a loss of Rp 60.5 million, also cash.

The owners said that the money was kept in safes.

"We'll do our best to nab all the suspects and seek enough evidence to bring them to court as soon as possible," Made said. (bsr)