Thursday February 21, 2013
Folk in Sibu residential area living in fear of glue-sniffing group
SIBU: Residents in Jalan Bertuah here are living in fear of a group of five glue-sniffing youths who are believed to be also responsible for several house break-ins reported in the neighbourhood.
The youths were alleged to have been terrorising the neighbourhood since December last year.
According to a resident, who wished to be identified as 50-year-old Wong, they would normally turn up and hang out in the neighbourhood after 6pm.
They would sometimes even stay on until the wee hours of the morning to prey on their targets, she added.
“From early December last year to last week, four cases of robbery and house-breaking were reported here. We are now living in fear as the youths, believed to be aged between 18 and 45, are still very active.
“They will be here in the evening after 6pm and even in the morning to look for their prey,’ she said.
Wong said she had also called up Lanang MP Datuk Tiong Thai King and community leader Temenggong Vincent Lau about the matter.
Tiong and Lau were quick in their response and went to visit the area to know more of the recent happenings.
Wong, who was also a victim, recalled an incident at about 10pm last December.
She had just arrived home from town when a man smashed the side window of her car.
The suspect then snatched her handbag which contained her identity card, car key, auto-gate remote control and few hundred ringgit.
The man fled on a motorcycle ridden by an accomplice who was waiting in the bushes in front of her house.
There was also an instance when Wong and her neighbour saw members of the group climb over the 7-foot backyard wall of a neighbour’s house to steal.
“We have also seen them hiding in the bushes at the backyard of our house to sniff glue,” she said.
As she feared for her safety, she had installed steel grilles on all her house windows including installing an alarm system.
The area, she said was dark at night due to limited street lighting.
Tiong advised residents there to immediately call the police if they saw any suspicious characters loitering in their area.
He said that the council would clear the bushes in the area so that the suspects would not use them as their hideout to commit crime.
Tiong also said he would get the authorities concerned to increase the street lighting there.
“We will meet up with the police chief to ask him to take whatever action necessary to solve the matter,” he added.