Police arrest suspect in gold shop heist in Bukit Mertajam

GEORGE TOWN: Fast action by the police resulted in the arrest of one of two suspected robbers following a heist at a gold shop at Jalan Datuk Ooh Chooi Cheng in Bukit Mertajam, near here today.
Penang police chief Datuk A. Thaiveegan said two men, both wearing full-face crash helmets, one of them armed with a pistol, robbed a gold shop at about 10am before fleeing on a motorcycle.
"At the time of the robbery, the owner and three of her employees, all women, were in the shop. One of robbers gagged the mouth of one of the employees, with the other robber pointed a pistol at the others (employees) while scooping the jewellery," he said.
As the susopects fled, the gold shop owner ran to the Traffic branch of the Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) district police headquarters, about 50m away, to seek help.
"A police corporal, who was on traffic patrol duty in front of the police station, heard the woman screaming for help and immediately went after the two suspects in a traffic police car.
"The police car managed to intercept the motorcycle, which the two suspects were riding on and going against traffic flow, and managed to apprehend one of them," he said.
Thaiveegan said the the suspect who was arrested, aged 36, had 11 previous crimes on record.
Police also seized a motorcycle, a Colt .22 pistol with five rounds of ammunition, a spent shell and a sling bag containing jewellery, worth about RM40,000, he added.
In another development, a man was detained for allegedly throwing bricks at a Toyota Fortuner belonging to the Road Transport Department (RTD), shattering the rear windscreen of the vehicle, at Jalan Valdor, Sungai Bakap, near here yesterday.
Seberang Perai Selatan district police chief Supt Shafee Abd Samad said the man, aged 36, was arrested at about 5.50pm in Sungai Bakap, about an hour after the incident.
"The man, who was riding a motorcycle and wearing a crash helmet, was reported to have approached the RTD vehicle and hurled a brick at it," he added. — Bernama