Penampang church break-in: 3 suspects held
Published on: Saturday, May 18, 2019
By: Del Roester Rudim
PENAMPANG: Three members of a “gang Carlsen” who broke into a church, here, last month were arrested.Penampang Police Chief DSP Mohd Haris Ibrahim said the first and second suspects, including the mastermind, were nabbed on May 8, while the third on the following day (May 9).
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He said the gang, believed to have been active since early this year, broke into the church by forcing open its grilled door and stole items worth nearly RM10,000 on April 20.
“A pastor of the church lodged a report that the church premises at Millennium was broken into and five items in it – an electric guitar, two speakers, wires, church funds amounting to RM1,000 cash and a keyboard – were stolen.
“Based on information received and collaboration with city police, we carried out an operation and successfully apprehended the first suspect at 9am at a house here, and following investigation, we nabbed the second suspect at 11.20am the same day.
“The follow-up investigation resulted in the arrest of the third suspect at a house in Kg Kobusak at 10.20am on May 9.
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“We also seized various items worth RM16,500 from the three suspects and recovered some of the items stolen from the church,” he told a press conference, here, Friday.
Haris said a total of 42 items were seized from the three suspects, including seven laptops and 24 mobile phones and tablets, among others.
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Further investigation, he said, also revealed that one of the suspects planned to open a shop selling the stolen mobile phones.
He also said the mastermind has previous conviction records for drug offences from 2012 to 2018, stealing a vehicle and robbery, while the third suspect has one conviction record this year for committing a drug offence.
“We are investigating whether the trio were also involved in other cases.”Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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