Wood looters' wives go naked

Wood looters' wives go naked

Muna, Southeast Sulawesi: Teakwood thieves here have perfected a
revealing way to humble forest rangers -- by exploiting their
embarrassment of naked women while they exploit the environment.

The crooks have taken their wives with them and, any time
rangers pursue them in the forest, the women will quickly go
strip in the hope that the officers would let them go while they
make off with loot.

La Ode Maradala, chief of Muna regency legislative council,
said that, first, the men cut down the trees and then the women,
in groups of six, load the logs onto carts which they push to
secret locations.

"They will strip off as soon as the rangers will catch them in
the act along the way," he said. "They hope the officers will be
too embarrassed to catch them."

The women get Rp 250,000 from the fencer for each cubic meter
of teakwood they manage to collect.

Maradala said he was impressed by the women's courage when
confronted by the police. The naked wives have sometimes
continued pushing and dragging their loot, even after rangers
fired warning shots into the air.

In such situations, the rangers usually withdraw. "However
tough the rangers may be, they don't have the heart to hurt the
nude housewives," Maradala said.--Antara