One too many break-ins

Lee Yoke Fatt (second from right) flanked by his brothers Michael Lee (right) and Simon Lee showing the police reports. With them is Lim Lip Eng (left). — Picture by Intan Nur Elliana Zakaria

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/3rbrg/Article (By Dawn Chan, 17/11/2010)
Two years ago businessman Lee Yoke Fatt purchased a three-storey warehouse unit for more than RM1 million in Medan Niaga Seri Kuching in Jalan Kuching. Though he has no regrets of making the purchase as the price of the property has since doubled, Lee has suffered major losses due to thefts. The 50-year-old, who runs a machinery parts business with his brothers, said his warehouse was broken into three times within a span of four days recently.

The first incident took place on Oct 28. When Lee arrived at the warehouse at 9.30am, he found the side door prised open. Following this, Lee had installed an iron door but a few days later, his warehouse was broken into again. "On the morning of Nov 1, thieves had once again entered my warehouse and fled with machinery spare parts worth RM8,000. I thought it would end. However, less than 24-hours later, it was burgled again and the thieves had carted away 10 units of electrical motors and other items. Those items were worth about RM10,000," said Lee during a press conference recently. Lee said some of the 39 warehouses in Medan Niaga Seri Kuching had also been broken into. The electrical cables at these units were stripped off for their high copper value. Taking the police's advice, Lee forked out about RM30,000 to beef up the security at his warehouse by installing closed-circuit television cameras, an alarm system and iron doors. Lee said the low occupancy in the area is one of the main reasons for the theft. Only 50 per cent of the units are occupied and many of the warehouse owners use the premises as a store. "I hope the police will patrol the area more often. Though the area is isolated, something has to be done to ensure the place is safe."
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, who was at the press conference said, break-ins were rampant not only in his constituency but in other parts of the city. Lim said he had written to the Sentul district police headquarters and Federal police repeatedly putting forward his request for either a police beat base or mobile police van to be based in Taman Seri Segambut, Taman Kok Doh, Bandar Manjalara and Taman Seri Kuching but to no avail. Lim has also forwarded his requests to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.