Four times unlucky for jewellery shop owner

BUTTERWORTH: It has been a string of bad luck for jewellery shop owner Lim Kheng Lin. The 53-year-old has been robbed four times, the latest incident being on Tuesday.

Lim’s daughter, who asked to be identified only as Ng, 24, could not believe the family’s misfortune.

“Why does this keep happening to us?” she said outside the shop in Chai Leng Park yesterday.

“My mother works hard to earn money so that the family can have a good life but we keep losing it to criminals.”

However, Lim is adamant about picking up the pieces and resuming her business after the shop is repaired.

“I am sad and angry about what happened,” Lim said, adding that she had to continue working because her children were still young.

On Tuesday, three robbers in full-face motorcycle helmets barged into the shop, smashed the display cases with sledgehammers and carted off with RM600,000 worth of jewellery.

A fourth accomplice stood guard outside, brandishing two pistols at passers-by. He even fired a warning shot before the four fled on two motorcycles.

Six years ago, burglars emptied Lim’s safe deposit box of cash and valuables amounting to about RM1mil at their home when the family was away on vacation.

Several years before that incident, robbers struck twice at her other outlet in Raja Uda, escaping with hundreds of thousands worth of jewellery.

State CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Mohd Zakaria Ahmad said the motorcycles used by the robbers had been stolen earlier in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur and Selayang, Selangor.

“They abandoned the motorcycles in Lorong Kurau 25, about a kilometre from the jewellery shop.

“We believe they left in a car after that, which was a silver Perodua Myvi,” said SAC Mohd Zakaria.

He said the police are confident of tracking down the robbers.

Lim said she and husband Ng Weng Keng, 53, were thinking about hiring an armed guard for better security at their shop.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng visited them and said the robbery was shocking because the state has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

He said Penang Chief Police Officer Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi would be assigning a special unit to the case.

The police have also been asked to increase patrols in the area, he added.