Scrap metal thieves targeting phone towers

Big bust: Salehuddin (third from left) and other officers looking at the recovered communication cables during a press conference in Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Scrap metal thieves are turning their attention to cellular telephone transmission towers and carting off electronic equipment.

The thieves have been stealing batteries as well as transmission equipment from the towers, some of which were recovered in a police raid at various homes in Putatan, Kinarut, Tenom and Keningau on March 4.

Sabah Police Criminal Investigations Department chief Datuk Salehuddin Abdul Rahman said 27 vehicle batteries were also seized during the raid.

Four men aged between 18 and 49, who are believed to be involved in the theft, were arrested on the same day, he added.

He said the raid came after an official from a telecommunications company reported that their transmission tower in Bukit Padang near here had been broken into and its equipment stolen.

One of the men is an Indonesian.

Salehuddin said three of the suspects tested positive for syabu and had prior drug convictions.

He said the police then arrested a man and his wife, both in their 40s, who were operating a scrap dealership in Inanam near here on March 6.

Fifty-five batteries were confiscated from the premises, Salehuddin said.

The police also arrested six men, aged between 25 and 35, after a Telekom Malaysia official reported that 200m of telephone cable had been stolen in Tuaran on Feb 13.

Authorities then raided an unnumbered house in Telipok on March 6 and recovered the cable casings as well as two vehicles.

All six men, four of whom were foreigners, also tested positive for syabu.