Man arrested over friend’s missing Land Cruiser

SIBU: A man was arrested on April 12 on suspicion of stealing his friend’s four-wheel drive vehicle (4WD) worth about RM500,000.

It is believed that the 49-year- old drove the vehicle away from his friend’s house at Merdeka Road when nobody was home between 8am and 5pm on April 7.

It is said that his friend, a businessman, is seldom in Sibu. His family is in Australia, while he spends most of his time in Papua New Guinea on business.

As such, there would usually be no one at the Merdeka Road house – except for two workers hired to take care of the place every night.

It is said that he left the ‘ Land Cruiser’ at home and should anyone want to borrow it, he would ask one of the workers to pass the key to that person.

Recently, he lent the 4WD to his brother-in-law from Sabah and his friend – the suspect.

On April 12 around 8pm, another friend of the owner noticed that the Land Cruiser was missing when passing by the house at Merdeka Road, so he called him.

Surprised by the news as he had not lent out the vehicle to anyone at the time, he asked his friend to lodge a police report that day.

Upon checking, police figured out that the car was stolen between 8am and 5pm on April 7.

The victim’s brother-in-law and the suspect were called in to assist in investigation.

Queried further, the suspect admitted to having taken the Land Cruiser after duplicating its key and door lock.

Police seized the stolen 4WD and the duplicated keys.

It is believed that the suspect had destroyed the vehicle’s chassis number and put his own road tax and car number on the 4WD.