Robbers snatch meal allowance cash

Robbers snatch meal allowance cash

BOGOR (JP): Armed with a pistol, two men robbed Rp 48 million
(US$4,900) in cash from employees of Palang Merah Indonesia
Hospital on Thursday, just as they arrived from the bank where
they had withdrawn the money.

The two suspects, who arrived on a Yamaha RX King motorcycle
bearing registration plate number B 6306 PO, snatched the money
from one of the hospital's security guards, Mad Rais, 48, after
opening fire on him. The shot, although it missed the target, was
enough to stop Rais' challenge.

The money would have been used to pay the monthly meal
allowance of some 400 employees of the city's largest hospital.
The allowance ranges from Rp 20,000 to Rp 75,000.

It was around 11 a.m., the start of patient visiting hours,
when Rais, a personnel staff member, M. Yusuf and a nurse, Ida
Ayu, got out of their car and were entering the hospital's left-
hand entrance when the robbery took place.

"We directly returned to the hospital after withdrawing the
money. We had never expected the robbery to happen because we do
this job every month," Rais said.

He speculated the robbers had trailed him since he left the
Bank BNI on Jl. Juanda.

Rais said he normally took the left-hand entrance, which is
actually the access to the Mawar patient room. The Mawar room is
located next to the hospital's management office.

The Mawar room was locked when Rais and company arrived
because one of the on-duty guards was having lunch and the other
was receiving a call.

Two police, also on a motorcycle, chased the suspects upon
hearing the robbery report from Rais. The police found the
suspects' motorbike lying on Jl. Arjimar in North Bogor, some two
kilometers away from the hospital. The suspect robbers are
believed to have escaped using public transportation. (21)