Recovered: ACP Zaidi (right) showing some of the stolen vehicles.
KOTA KINABALU: Two jobless men on a larceny spree around the country have been nabbed, helping police solve at least seven cases in Sabah and Selangor.
Kota Kinabalu OCPD Asst Comm Zaidi Abdullah said the men, aged 36 and 39, were arrested at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at around 8.20pm on Wednesday while a third accomplice, a 37-year-old, is on the run.
ACP Zaidi said with their arrest, police have cracked at least seven cases in Sabah and Selangor that were committed recently.
He said the suspects’ most recent act of thievery allegedly took place on March 6, at around 4.20pm, where they broke into a car showroom along Jalan Lintas Kepayan and fled with two four-wheel-drive vehicles.
“The suspects were believed to have broken the glass panes of the showroom, grabbed a bunch of keys before driving off with the two vehicles,” he said in a press conference at the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters yesterday.
ACP Zaidi said the suspects managed to sell one of the vehicles for RM10,000 to a local salesman, while they hid the other stolen car behind a supermarket in Menggatal, not far from the state capital.
He said the two suspects went to Selangor after that, and committed at least three house break-ins and thefts before returning to Sabah on March 15, where they were nabbed.
“It is learnt that they had committed at least a few more thefts in several districts here including Keningau,” he said.
ACP Zaidi said both suspects, who tested positive for methamphetamine, have at least 18 previous convictions including for drugs and break-in offences.
“They have been working as a team together with the third suspect, who is still at large,” he said, adding that the two arrested suspects are from Tuaran and Papar while the accomplice is from Darau, Menggatal.
He said the two who were nabbed had been under police supervision in Penang and Perak for two years.
ACP Zaidi said apart from the two suspects, the vehicle buyer has also been hauled in to facilitate investigations on the extent of his involvement.
Losses incurred in the showroom theft amounted to RM360,000 while the total losses from other recent cases were still being investigated, he said.
“We are working with our counterparts in the peninsula and other districts to work on this case,” he said.
All suspects have been remanded until tomorrow.
