BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: A masked man armed with sickle robbed a grocery shop in Ban 3, Sengkurong a few days ago but got away only with a suitcase that contained documents, Brudirect reported.
The Royal Brunei Police Force (RPBF) has appealed for information from the public to help locate the suspect whose daring crime was caught on the shop’s CCTV.
According to a statement from the police, the drama unfolded late in the evening on September 10, 2014 (Wednesday) during the shop’s closing time, which received an emergency call at 11.40pm.
The shop’s manager was outside the shop and about to lock the door while two workers had already returned to their quarters when the suspect emerged from a car and rushed towards the manager. The suspect threatened the manager with a sickle and told him to go back inside the shop.
The manager showed a CCTV footage of the robber rushing inside the shop and rummaging through the drawers near the cash register. The suspect grabbed what appeared to be a suitcase. The manager said the robber went to his car and left with the suitcase, which he said contained three passports, business licence documents, cheque books and immigration documents.
The RBPF statement said that the police have classified the case as robbery under Section 392, Chapter 22 of the Penal Code after investigating the CCTV footage.
The RBPF said that the grocery shop’s manager suspects that the robber was a foreign national based on the suspect’s accent. The RBPF also revealed that the suspect drove a Mazda saloon car without licence plates in the incident.
Meanwhile in a separate robbery case, a local man was robbed of valuables worth around $1,700 in a daring robbery on Saturday morning when his car was forced to stop by two suspects who were armed with a machete and meat cleaver.
According to the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF), an emergency call was received at around 3.40am regarding the incident that took place near the junction of Kampong Parit Recreational Park.
Police said that the victim was on the way home when his car was stopped by a white Daihatsu Charmant which did not have a licence plate.
Wearing red masks, two men – one wielding a machete and the other brandishing a meat cleaver – walked to the victim’s car and asked the victim to hand over his valuables.
Fearing for his life, the victim handed over valuables worth about $1,700 in the incident which the police have been classified as robbery under Section 398, Chapter 22 of the Penal Code.
The RBPF urged the public to provide any information on the case to the Sengkurong Police Station by contacting the number 2661904 or the emergency line 993.