KUCHING: An unemployed man suspected of being involved in a snatch theft case in front of a restaurant at Jalan Chan Bee Kiew here on 30 May was arrested by police on Monday.
The 30-year-old man was arrested by a police team led by ASP Stephen Ayuk at around 6.30am at Kampung Bundong in Kota Samarahan.
State Crime Investigation Department (CID) chief, SAC Dato’ Dev Kumar Sree Shunmugam confirmed the arrest and said the police also seized a mobile phone, motorcycle spare parts and a motorcycle, believed to be used by the suspect to commit crimes in the city.
“Further investigation revealed that the suspect admitted to be involved in more than 20 snatch theft cases in Kuching and Padawan.
“In his bid to avoid detection, the suspect would swipe the blue body parts of the motorcycle with green ones and used false plate numbers before committing the crimes,” he said.
Dev Kumar said the suspect, who had previous criminal records involving theft and drug-related offences, was also tested positive for methamphetamine.
He said with the arrest, he believed the police had solved many snatch theft cases in Kuching and Padawan.
Meanwhile, Dev Kumar disclosed that over the past few months, a task force at CID HQ had been monitoring reported snatch theft cases in the city and studying the patterns and modus operandi as well as identifying the individuals or groups involved.
He believed that there might be several individuals and groups, who are still at large, prowling on unsuspecting victims, especially women around the city.
He advised the public to stay alert and be vigilant to make sure that they do not fall victim, instead of merely relying on the police to look into their security.
