Jewellery Store In One Utama Robbed Of RM10 Million During CNY Holidays

Police investigations have revealed that slick Latin American robbers are behind the clean robbery at a jewellery store in 1 Utama shopping complex during the Chinese New Year holiday stretch.

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Abdul Rahim said police have leads that the perfect crime was carried out by four Latin American suspects.
“Based on statements that were recorded from witnesses and the CCTV footage taken from the mall, it clearly indicates the suspects are Latin Americans,” he said.

“It was a well-planned robbery. The four had caused a power cut, resulting in a blackout in the mall for an hour on Sunday night. We believe they made their entry into the mall then,” Abdul Rahim said. He also said the suspects were experienced robbers as they managed to crack a highly sophisticated security alarm system.

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"There was a sudden cut in electricity on Sunday night for about an hour which we believe is linked to the gang when they sneaked into the mall. The thieves also stole a CCTV recorder which was mounted in the goldsmith store. After viewing security cameras in the mall, our findings show they appear to be foreigners, possibly Latin Americans." Abdul Rahim said at a press conference at the Kajang district police headquarters today.

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He said the burglar alarm at the store did not trigger as thieves had deactivated motion sensors. He said except for a wire cutter, the thieves also took along all the break-in equipment including a gas welding blowtorch they brought with them.

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The suspects would have had to be in the premise for at least five to 10 hours. Security guards on duty in the mall patrolled the building when the electricity went off, but they did not find anything suspicious. “The suspects could have made an exit after they made sure that there were no security guards around.”

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Abdul Rahim said although it was yet to be verified, the store personnel had estimated the loss at RM10 million.

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Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Jaafar said investigations suggest the suspects could be the notorious Latin American robbers who made headlines in 2012 and last year for their involvement in a string of automated teller machine thefts in the country.

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DCP Abdul Rahim said the suspects also made off with the closed circuit television (CCTV) recorder and equipment to break open the safe box, not dismissing possibilities that an insider may have been an accomplice.

Petaling Jaya: A jewellery store in a shopping mall in Damansara was robbed while its employees were on leave for the holiday season.

It is believed that the stolen jewellery were worth more than RM1mil.

Although police were still totalling the actual losses, the source said the figure was more than RM1 million.

“They took all the jewellery stored inside the safes, and left only small items, such as rings and bracelets, that do not cost very much.”

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“This is the estimated loss as stated by store officials but they are trying to confirm this. We are in the middle of gathering evidence which, we hope, will help lead us to the crooks. We also urge those with information to come forward and assist us in the probe,” he said.

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Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Arjunadi Mohamed said the store, which was closed from Thursday, was due to open yesterday.

Instead, the store’s employees came in at 10am to find two of the three safes containing jewellery were broken into.

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A store employee, who declined to be named, said she was surprised to see more than half of the jewellery missing when she came in yesterday morning.

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The burglary at Wah Chan Jewellers is believed to have occurred sometime between Friday and yesterday as workers only realised the shop had been burgled when they came back from the holidays at 9.30am today.

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“Following standard operating procedures, the employees deposited the jewellery into safe boxes at the end of their shift on Jan 29.

“They kept the safe boxes in rooms located at the back of the store before leaving for their holiday,” said ACP Arjunaidi.

Employee:
“We made sure all the security was in place before we left for the holidays. I don’t know how the culprit managed to break in unnoticed.”

It is believed that police are working on the theory that the burglars had stayed behind after closing hours on Friday to stage the heist.

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Arjunaidi said police believe the culprit had entered the store through its back door during one of the four days the store was closed.

“We believe that the culprits had entered the premises through the rear door as there are signs of forced entry on the door.

“We received the report at 10.40am and upon inspection, noticed that the safes, stored in the back room of the store, were broken into with an oxy acetelene torch used to melt safe doors,” said Arjunaidi.

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Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed said they had gained entry into the shop from a rear door before using an oxyacetalene torch to break into a vault where the jewellery was stored.

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He added that police are still investigating as to why the removal of jewellery from the store did not set off the security alarm.

“We are waiting to review the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the store.

A police forensic team spent about five hours checking the store yesterday for evidence besides lifting fingerprints.

Investigators are baffled as to how the burglars managed to remain unnoticed despite the presence of security guards on duty at the mall.

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“The store was equipped with an alarm, but somehow it was turned off during the holidays.”
A police source said: “We suspect it might be an inside job, because everything was organised professionally and the culprit knew the workings of the store, such as how to turn off the alarm and where the CCTV recordings were stored.”

He said police have retrieved a closed-circuit security camera recording and will record statements from the mall’s security guards.

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Meanwhile, Santa Singh, the mall’s operations safety and security manager, said that security guards were required to monitor movements around the building at all times.

“I believe that this was a well-planned crime,” he said.

“We are giving the police our full cooperation to get to the bottom of this,” he added.