RM500,000 bird’s nests, gamat theft

KENINGAU: A man was detained by police at the immigration counter at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) on August 25 in connection with a RM500,000 theft case at a medicine shop here.

District police chief Deputy Superintendent Ahmad Jawila said the 40-year-old man from Kuala Lumpur was brought back to the district police headquarters here and remanded for investigation under Section 380 of the Penal Code.

“On August 23, a 34-yearold medicine trader from Keningau lodged a police report that 50 kilogrammes of bird’s nests worth RM300,000, 400 kilograms of gamat worth RM192,000 and a CCTV decoder worth RM5,000 were missing from his shop at Masak Road here,” he said yesterday.

“From the CCTV recording, police found that two men had entered the victim’s shop and took away several boxes of bird’s nest, gamat and a CCTV decoder between 8pm and 11pm on August 20,” he said, adding one of the men was the suspect.

Ahmad said the complainant got to know the suspect six months ago and the latter had wanted to be the former’s business partner.

Police believe the suspect could have used a duplicate key to enter the shop as there was no sign of break-in.

Ahmad said the stolen items had yet to be recovered and the police were still investigating the case.

If convicted, the suspect could be jailed for 10 years and also be liable to a fine.