Man clubbed to death by suspected cable thief

KOTA KINABALU: A man has been found clubbed to death after apparently stumbling upon a cable thief at an abandoned office building in the Kingfisher area here.

Kota Kinabalu City police chief Asst Comm ACP Mohd Zaidi Abdullah said on Monday (Jan 3) that the man's friend found him lying in a pool of blood at the scene at around midnight.

He said the victim, in his 50s, was apparently hit in the face several times with a thick piece of wood.

Police believe the suspect was stealing electrical cables from the abandoned office.

ACP Mohd Zaidi said the victim's body has been sent for post-mortem and the case was being investigated as murder.

He said initial investigations showed that the victim left his workers' quarters at about 10.30pm to check on an electrical fuse at the abandoned building, from which they were drawing power.

The quarters did not have electricity at the time.

When he failed to return, the victim's colleague and his son went to check on him.

As it was dark, the colleague called the victim's handphone and followed the ringing to a room in the abandoned building where they found his body.

The colleague immediately called the police.