KUALA LUMPUR: Police are investigating whether a man who carted away RM600,000 from a bank in Damansara Heights were involved in other heists prior to the case.
Brickfields police chief assistant commissioner Ruslan Khalid said there were several cases with similar modus operandi in the Klang Valley and police are checking to see if it was committed by the same man.
“There are two to three cases (with similar modus operandi) and it is not just in Brickfields district. We urge people with information to come forward to assist the police,” he said when contacted.
The man, in his 30s, has yet to be arrested.
On Sept 8, the man clad in shorts, t-shirt and slippers, had walked into the bank at about 12.30 pm, posing as a fire extinguisher technician. He allegedly told the bank manager that he had been assigned to carry out inspections on the premises. The bank manager then asked for his credentials, but he failed to produce them. As a result, the bank manager prohibited him from proceeding.
The man however loitered at the bank and once the manager was on lunch break, he snuck into the safe room without raising suspicion. He was in and out of the bank in 20 minutes.
It was only two hours later that the bank’s employees learned that they had been robbed. The robber was believed to have stuffed the RM600,000 cash into the black backpack he had on him.
It is believed that the bank heist was not the only crime the man had committed. It was reported that a businessman, Zie Chong, who owns a shop in Bangsar claimed that the man had visited his shop on Dec 4 last year under the pretext of carrying out pipework repairs.
The robber, claimed to be wearing the same blue t-shirt in the bank heist, had allegedly informed the victim that there was an ongoing pipe repair work next to the shop before he stole a handphone and fled.
Zie said he came across photos of the suspect from the CCTV footage released by police to the public. Ruslan confirmed police are looking into the matter.
Anyone with information on the case are urged to contact investigating officer Assistant Superintendent Mohd Hafizi Ishak at 017-233 6343 or the Brickfields district police headquarters at 03-9051 6222.
Members of the public can also contact the RakanCop hotline for Kuala Lumpur police at 03-2115 9999, text 32728 or alert any police station.