BUKIT MERTAJAM, Jan 2 — Four machete-wielding men who robbed a convenience store in Jalan Tanah Liat and tried to escape via express bus to Kuala Lumpur after their faces went viral on social media were arrested by the police in Sungai Buloh yesterday.
Aged between 17 and 20, they were arrested at the Sungai Buloh Rest and Recreation (R&R) area at 4am by a team of officers and members of the Serious Crimes Investigations Division (D9) of the Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) district police headquarters.
SPT district police chief ACP Nik Ros Azhan Nik Abdul Hamid said at 11.28am yesterday two armed men had entered a 24-hour convenience store in Jalan Tanah Liat while two others were waiting outside the premises to keep an eye of the situation.
“One of the men went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water before heading to the counter where an 18-year-old female cashier was about to scan the bottle when the suspect suddenly pointed a long machete at her,” he said here today.
He said the two men forced the cashier to give up all the money in the cashier machine before fleeing with two other friends waiting outside the store on two motorcycles.
Nik Ros Azhan said investigations found the suspects had run away with RM150 cash and that the premises, equipped with a closed-circuit camera (CCTV), managed to capture the incident and the suspects’ faces before it became viral on social media including WhatsApp applications.
He said following their arrest, police seized a long machete, two motorcycles as well as three mobile phones and an investigation found that the four men had been involved in several robbery cases of 24-hour convenience stores since last year with another accomplice still at large.
According to him, the four unemployed men are now being remanded for further investigation and the case is being investigated under Section 395/397 of the Penal Code. — Bernama
