Thieves steal over 1.5 tonnes of raw food

KUCHING: Thieves carted off more than 1.5 tonnes of raw food commodities after breaking into a factory on Tuesday and driving off with a lorry filled with shallots, groundnuts and green peas.

The theft was discovered around 7am when a storekeeper arrived for work at the factory, located at the Bintawa Industrial Estate, and found signs of forced entry.

Checks soon revealed that one of the factory’s transport lorries had been driven off along with its cargo, comprising 600kg of shallots, 900kg of groundnuts, and 100kg of green peas.

Total loss was estimated at over RM30,000.

The stolen lorry, however, was subsequently located later the same afternoon, abandoned along Jalan Simen Raya in Pending but devoid of its cargo.

In a separate case, thieves broke into a warehouse at Demak Laut and stripped it of its electrical cables worth over RM25,000 on Tuesday.

The theft was discovered around 7pm when a security guard arrived for his shift and found the locks on the entrance and rear exit had been forcibly removed, while the wire mesh fence at the back of the premises had also been cut.

A police report of the theft was lodged later the same night.