Chandra (second left) showing the weapons seized from the robbery suspects.
KOTA KINABALU: A youth and a teenager who claimed to be cash-strapped robbed a 24-hour convenience store in Jalan Lintas last week.
Armed with a ‘parang’ and a meat cleaver, the suspects made away with RM782.40 in the incident that occurred on June 21, city police chief ACP M Chandra said.
The elder suspect was arrested at a public area in Putatan on June 26, he told reporters yesterday.
The teenager was picked up in Ganang the next day, Chandra said, adding that both suspects have been remanded until July 4 to facilitate investigations under Sections 395/397 of the Penal Code.
According to Chandra, both did not have any previous criminal records and they also passed a drug test.
“They gave the reason of needing money which led them to rob the store,” he said and added that the 22-year-old suspect had in fact been an employee of the store for one day only.
The victim in the case was a 19-year-old youth who reported that at about 4.30am on June 21, the store was robbed by two unidentified males.
One of the robbers was armed with a ‘parang’ and used it to force the store employee to empty the cash register and hand over the cash inside.
The other suspect who was armed with a meat cleaver stood guard at the entrance of the store and both ran out of the premises after getting the money.
“Investigations revealed that the modus operandi of the duo was to try to cover up their mode of transportation in the robbery as the suspect had with him a motorcycle helmet. It is believed that they wanted the victim to think that they came on a motorcycle when in fact they had travelled there in a car which was parked a distance away from the store,” Chandra disclosed.
He added that police seized a meat cleaver, a parang, a t-shirt and a handphone from the suspects.