Vandals leave their mark on hawker centre

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KUCHING: Vandals struck a hawker centre in Bintawa yesterday for the second time in six months, bending blades of ceiling fans and shoving match sticks into the keyholes of padlocks.

IRRESPONSIBLE: Two of the nine damaged ceiling fans at the hawker centre.

Hawkers operating at the 11-stall ‘Pusat Penjaja Bintawa’ found the acts of vandalism when they wanted to open for business early yesterday morning. Nine stalls were affected.

One hawker said such incidents occurred quite often a few years back, but appeared to have stopped for some time until about six months ago.

He added that the vandals would bend all the blades of their ceiling fans and stuff match sticks into the padlocks of their roller shutters, causing much inconvenience.

He urged the local council to replace the damaged ceiling fans as quickly as possible, and called upon the police to step up their patrol of the area at night to help prevent any recurrence.

In an unrelated case on Friday, alert youths helped recover a bag stolen from a car when they chased the thieves and beat them up.

The incident took place at a commercial centre near Taman BDC around 9pm when the youths spotted two men breaking the rear window of a parked car and removing a small bag from it.

They went after the thieves and dished out street justice on the duo, who managed to break free and flee on foot, empty-handed.

The stolen bag, which contained some personal documents, was returned to its owner, a middle-aged couple from Bintulu having supper nearby.

The police were called to the scene after it was realised the suspects had left behind a motorcycle, which they impounded for investigation.