House owner sees red after five break-ins

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KUCHING: A house owner at Capital Garden, 4th Mile Penrissen Road here is frustrated with the enforcement authorities after he was hit by five break-ins this year.

Peter Wong, a businessman, said he did not lodge a report with the authorities the first four times his house was burgled.

The latest break-in, marking the fifth time for the year, took a heavy toll on him as he was forced to mend the same lock five times, not to mention losses. His plight was brought up by Wanita PKR vice chief Voon Shiak Ni, who visited his residence yesterday.

“He told us he did not report the four incidents earlier because he was busy with business all day, hence had no time to run to police stations. While we do not encourage people to not alerting the authorities, Wong’s case also goes to show that crime is happening every day despite statistics released by the police,” Voon said at a news conference at PKR Stampin office here.

Voon disclosed that the victim had recruited a personal security guard to keep an eye on his property.

“We hope that people do not have to turn to engaging their own security guard to look after their houses, as this implies that the public have lost confidence in our police, and are finding other means to protect themselves.”

She reasoned that Wong refused to report the first four burglaries due to ‘inconvenience of lodging police report’. She claimed that a couple of police stations had made the procedure harder for victims.

“I myself was a victim in four cases but I reported only once. Of course, this is not to encourage people to do so. It is merely putting across the point that the authorities should make reporting a case easier instead of the other way around.”

Voon also urged the police to work out some strategic plan to curb break-ins in and around the city, adding that increasing patrols no longer seemed to effectively deter crime.

“Some form of special operation must be carried out to bring down the number of cases.”