KUCHING: Three friends ended up in police custody when they were incriminated for the theft of several hens by the tell tale blood drops from one of the slaughtered fowls.
RECOVERED: The gunnysack containing the stolen hens is an incriminating evidence of the theft.
The incident took place on Tuesday around 8.30pm when a Rela unit from Sungai Moyan in Batu Kawah spotted three suspicious persons leaving a chicken farm carrying a gunnysack.
Rearing hens for their eggs, the farm had been regularly targeted by thieves in the past and hence required the owner to engage the help of local residents and Rela members to patrol the surrounding area during the night.
Upon checking the coops inside the farm, the Rela members found four hens missing and immediately trailed the suspected thieves on foot to a shop house not far away.
They then waited for the suspects to enter a unit on the first floor before knocking on the door and identifying themselves to the men inside.
The suspects finally opened the door after several minutes and vehemently denied stealing the chickens when questioned about the theft. They even allowed the Rela members inside to inspect the unit as a sign that they had nothing to hide.
Despite an extensive search, the members failed to find the stolen hens, and were about to call off their search when one of them spotted drops of blood dripping from the ceiling board above onto the floor.
The incriminating evidence immediately led the team to remove the ceiling board where the gunnysack containing the hens was recovered.
The tell tale blood came from one of the four hens, which the suspects had apparently slaughtered upon their arrival home and just minutes prior to the arrival of the Rela team.
At that point, one of the suspects bolted from the room and disappeared but the remaining trio were successfully apprehended and handed them over to police at the Batu Kawah police station.
A police report of the incident was lodged and the suspects, who are all buddies in their 20s, were then detained in the lockup pending further investigation.