Lift components in flats stolen

20/11/2007 The Star

STOLEN ...Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Lee Hack Teik looking at the hole where the lift component used to be yesterday.

PENANG: Four electronic lift components and an aluminium panel worth more than RM4,000 were stolen from a block of flats on Macallum Street here.

Block 348 chairman Mohd Ghouse Shaik Daud said the theft, which occurred yesterday, had caused inconvenience to at least 500 residents staying in the 21-storey block.

“Residents staying in the upper floors now have to walk down to the 9th floor to take the lift since the lift components on the 12th, 14th, 17th and 20th floors were stolen,” he said.

“A resident spotted two men wearing yellow uniforms unscrewing the components at about noon but suspected nothing amiss as he thought they were lift maintenance staff.

“We have since reported the matter to the police. I believe that the thieves could have sold the items to second hand goods dealers,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Lee Hack Teik, who was also present, said he was offering a RM500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves.

“I would like to urge the residents of the seven other blocks of flats to be on the lookout for such thieves posing as lift maintenance staff,” he said.

A police spokesman said they would check the local scrap metal yards. Any dealers found with such items would be arrested, adding that the police would also recommend that their licences be revoked.

A spate of such thefts was reported in various parts of the island earlier this year. It stopped after two men were arrested and 15 electronic lift components were recovered.