KEPALA BATAS: Police have crippled a luxury bicycle theft gang with the arrest of an unemployed man last month.
Police received numerous reports on such cases, prompting them to raid a house in Butterworth and found nine bicycles, believed to have been stolen.
Investigations found that some of the bicycles stolen were luxury ones priced around RM20,000 each.
The total losses suffered by the victims was estimated at more than RM50,000.
Seberang Prai Utara district police chief Assistant Commissioner Noorzainy Mohd Noor said they are zooming in on two other accomplices.
“We received a report from a man, claiming that his son’s bicycle which was parked inside their home at Taman Bistari, Raja Uda here, was stolen.
“Camera footage showed that a man, wearing a helmet, jumped into the house and passed the bicycle to another man waiting outside the premises before they escaped from the area,” he told newsmen today.
Noorzainy said that the bicycle theft gang would ride around residential areas on their motorcycles to look for bicycles to steal before committing the crime.
“Since the bicycles are light, it is easy for them to steal,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 457 of the Penal Code.
Meanwhile, police arrested two men for stealing mosque donation boxes in the district in order to buy drugs.
A day before Christmas, a 52-year-old man was detained after he was caught red-handed by the locals at a mosque near Kampung Nyior Sebatang.
“Four days later, we detained a 19-year-old youth for stealing money from another donation box and a laptop at a mosque in Pokok Machang, Tasek Gelugor.
“Both of them admitted that they did so to buy drugs. Both were tested positive for drugs,” he added.
In an unrelated case, Noorzainy said police detained a Myanmar woman with her son for stealing a handphone at the newly-opened Penang Sentral transportation hub on Nov 25.