Tire shop, residence burgled in C. Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): A tire shop and a private residence where robbed early on Friday in Central Jakarta, with the burglars making away with goods worth tens of millions of rupiah.

The first robbery occurred at PD Radial Ban, a tire shop on Jl. Gunung Sahari Raya. The thieves stole at least 55 tires, documents and electronic devices, including a facsimile machine and computer equipment, a police officer said.

The officer, who asked not to be named, said that the shop's owner, Yacob, learned of the robbery when he arrived on Friday morning and noticed that the padlock on the shop's door had been cut.

"When he opened the door, he saw that his store was a mess and the tires were gone," the officer said.

He said that the thieves must have had information about when the people who ran the business came and went.

"Taking so many tires took a long time and more than one person was needed," he said.

He said that Yacob's losses from the theft reached Rp 50 million.

The second burglary occurred at the residence of a university lecturer on Jl. Paseban Raya. A group of thieves gained entry to the house by smashing a window and threatening the owner, Syarifah, with a gun.

The officer said that Syarifah woke up when she heard the window being broken at about 3 a.m.

She got up to see what was happening and encountered a group of about five people who had entered her house, he said.

The woman grabbed a rattan stick to defend herself, but the thieves wrested the stick from her and struck her in the head. The commotion awakened the other occupants of the house.

The officer said that the inhabitants could do nothing because they were threatened with a gun by the thieves, who stole Syarifah's 20-gram gold necklace.

"It remains unclear whether or not the gun was counterfeit," the officer said, adding that the thieves fled in a Kijang van. (ivy)