From The Star 1 June 2007:
Workers who provided men refuge get robbed instead
JOHOR BARU: Hiding several men fleeing from a police raid early yesterday turned out to be a bad move for three Indonesian workers.
Those men turned out to be robbers. They tied up the workers and ransacked a factory in Jalan Pontian.
State CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Roslan Ahmad said police, acting on a tip-off, sent a team to the location and caught three suspects.
“We recovered a lorry loaded with plastic resins and some parang,” he said.
Police are looking for several others still at large.
In Ulu Tiram, an alert neighbour who knew that his neighbour was not at home alerted police when he saw two people in the house.
SAC Roslan said this led to the arrest of two suspects, including one who had a criminal record.
He said the house owner, a teacher, had gone back to his hometown for the holidays and had informed his neighbours.
Police also arrested two men believed to be involved in at least five robberies during an early morning operation in Johor Jaya.
Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said a knife and two motorcycles were recovered from the suspects.
He said the suspects targeted people returning home late at night and would strike at the gate by pointing a knife at potential victims and demanding for their cash and valuables.
Anyone with information on criminal activity can contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999 or the nearest police station.
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From The Star 1 June 2007:
Cops nab four in crime-prevention ops
JOHOR BARU: Police arrested four people with weapons and break-in tools in separate operations in Taman Permas Jaya here.
Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said that the arrests were made during a special crime prevention operation in the housing estate that began May 28.
In the first arrest, he said police picked up two men found to be acting suspiciously on Wednesday.
“They were riding on a motorcycle and making rounds at 2am so police flagged them down for a check,” he said.
ACP Shafie said that upon checking, police recovered a parang, a knife, an allen-key and other items from the duo, who were in their 20s and 30s.
He said that at 10pm the next day, police arrested another two more men attempting to break into a house.
He said that police also found some tools, which could be used for break-ins, on the suspects, who had three previous records of break-ins.
“All four suspects are being detained for further investigations,” said ACP Shafie.
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From The Star 1 June 2007:
Stripped clean of all metal
JOHOR BARU: Scrap metal thefts are becoming so rampant at the Taman Permas Jaya 10 commercial centre that some 30% of the shoplots there have been stripped clean of any saleable metal.
Window frames, glasses, aluminium shutters and even wires have been stolen from the premises.
Shop owner Michael Tay said he was shocked to find his four-storey shoplot “metal-less”.
“Only the walls are left intact in my shop,” he said.
Tay said many business people had called off their plans to invest in Permas Jaya, which is within the Iskandar Development Region (IDR).
“I brought some investors to the area but they were worried to start any business after seeing the condition of the shoplots.”
Tay said traders and people living in the area were also worried by the escalating crime rate, adding that many of them had moved out from the once-popular business hub.
He said with the units vacant, the scrap metal thieves had it easy.
Permas Jaya has 16 sections with a population of over 100,000 but does not have a single police station. The nearest one is in Plentong, four kilometres away.
Tay, who is also Bandar Baru Tampoi MCA chairman, said he would write to the state police chief, asking to increase police patrols and step up security measures.
Low Tian Yew, a 50-year-old owner of an aquarium and pet centre, said he dared not leave his wife or any woman worker in the shop alone.
“This area sees an average of three robberies a week,” he said.
