KEMAMAN: A pair of identical male twins, who disguised themselves as an elderly Muslim couple, were nabbed by police as they were planning to rob a series of goldsmith shops in Terengganu.
Terengganu crime chief Assistant Commissioner Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Hamzah said the pair, dubbed the 'Amir twins' (as both have similar first names), had been responsible for two robbery attempts at goldsmith shops in Dungun on Aug 20 and 25, respectively, and were targeting dozens more in the bustling towns of the east coast peninsula.
Police, Aziz said, got their lucky break when they acted on a public tip-off following a suspicious white Perodua Viva near Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Kuang in Chukai at 4pm last Friday.
"The district police operations room put out an all-points bulletin to mobile patrol cars to check the tip-off. When one of our cars spotted and approached the Viva, it sped off resulting in a high-speed chase that ended when the latter crashed near a traffic light junction at Teluk Kalong.
"The Viva was wrecked as it turned turtle and the two culprits, who sustained slight injuries, were duly arrested," said Aziz at the district police headquarters.
From the Viva, police seized an assortment of robbery and burglary equipment, including a fake pistol, a jackhammer, crow bar, binoculars, gloves, balaclavas and disguise-items like fake beard, toupee, purdah and jubah (women's robe).
Also seized were plastic cuffs and false car registration number plates.
"More shockingly, we retrieved a forged Malaysian identification card issued from Thailand, along with a United Nations international vehicle driving licence.
"The twins, from Cheras in Selangor, had rented the Viva from Penang on Aug 19 and travelled to Terengganu to live at a homestay outlet to plan their robberies," said Aziz.
Their modus operandi, he added, was to dress up like an elderly Muslim couple and rob dozens of unsuspecting goldsmiths, a majority of which lack armed guards and closed circuit television cameras.
"However, their ruse failed to materialise with their early capture, thanks to alert members of the public who tipped us off," he said.
Upon interrogation, the twins revealed that they had raked up huge debts from a money lender to pursue a lucrative job picking fruits in Australia, recently.
But their venture failed to materialise and they returned home, resorting to a life of crime to recover their financial loses.
The twins also failed a urine test for cannabis.
Aziz said they had been remanded for four days to facilitate investigations under Section 36(1) of the Firearms Act, 1960 and Section 393 of the Penal Code for attempted robberies.
They were also being investigated for possessing a forged MyKad and evading arrest.