Police hot on trail of fast-acting robbers

BOGOR (JP): Police detectives in Bogor are pursuing a group of five men armed with toy guns and sickles who managed to rob two houses within a period of less than 30 minutes on Thursday evening.

"Our team is still hunting for these men, whom we believe are the same guys that robbed the two places," Bogor Police chief of detectives Capt. Umar Sumardi told The Jakarta Post on Friday evening.

Driving a Daihatsu Charade minibus, the robbers pretended they were parcel couriers in an effort to meet the occupants and enter the houses, the victims said separately on Thursday.

The first part of the operation was carried out at about 4:45 p.m. as they robbed a house rented by a Japanese on Jl. Lokatamala at the Vila Duta housing complex before moving to the other target on Jl. Pulo Armen in the Pajajaran Kencana housing complex, about 200 meters away from the first location.

During their operations, the robbers did not harm any of the victims but pointed their fake guns and sickles at the helpless people in order to terrorize them.

While carrying out the robbery at the first house, rented by Japanese national Oshuka Masyahiro, the five men only met with two housemaids, Onah, 40, and Misyah, 30.

The two servants told reporters at the scene that the five initially introduced themselves as couriers who were assigned to deliver a parcel to Kusnadi, the owner of the house, from a man named Hendri living in Rancamaya.

"But when they were inside the house, they suddenly snapped at us and ordered us not to scream, while holding their sickles to our necks," Misyah recalled.

The men also asked the two women not to move or attempt to fight back.

"We just need money for food," Onah quoted one of the robbers as saying.

After tying up the hands and legs of the two maids using shoe strings, the robbers then took Rp 2 million (US$270) in cash from a cupboard.

"We finally told the robbers where the money was, which is for the daily needs of the house, because we were afraid of being tortured by them," Onah explained.

From there, the robbers drove to a nearby housing complex and pulled up in front of the house of Susanto Chandra, 50, who had just arrived home from his office.

Using the same technique, the gang was then allowed to enter the house by Susanto, who was later stunned after the robbers pointed their guns at him and put a sickle around his neck.

"I knew that the gray and black guns were bogus," Susanto said at his house.

He decided not to make a move since "the robbers insisted that they only wanted some money," he added.

Susanto then let the robbers take Rp 300,000 from his wallet, a wristwatch, a cellular phone and two rings.

He identified the license plate of the vehicle as B 2136 TD. (21/bsr)