Man Arrested Following Robbery to 36 Villas

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - A man was arrested by the Bali Police following robbery to 36 luxurious villas in Ubud, Gianyar and Badung District.

"We managed to reveal the robbery to foreign nationals' villas by cooperating with Ubud Sector Police Office... and we have arrested the suspect," Spokesperson of Crime and Violence Sub-Directorate III of Bali Police Commissioner Pande Putu Sugiarta said here Wednesday.

The suspect, I Komang PS (25), resident of Jembrana, was arrested in Tawang Alun Bus Terminal, Jember, East Java on Tuesday (July 16) at 04:00 am local time.

The arrest was thanks to information from SP, I Komang's partner in crime, who had been arrested earlier by Denpasar Police.

Before arrested in Jember, the suspect moved to Surabaya to escape from Police. During the interrogation, the suspect admitted to have robbed 36 villas, 25 of them in Ubud, Gianyar District, six in Bukit Pecatu and the other five in Canggu, the last two areas are in Badung District.

The suspect mostly did the robbery alone, besides several time being accompanied by SP. "The suspect usually robbed the villas at noon or evening. He started by calling the villa owners from the outside. If there is no response or unoccupied, the suspect began his operation by breaching the door," Sugiarta said.

The suspect did the robbery to the villas within minutes. Most of the stolen valuables have been sold in Java. I Komang's last robbery was reported to occur in Penestan Villa, Sayan Ubud Village, Gianyar District on June 10 2013. The villa is owned by a Dutch national, Anne Gerrie Johanna Van de Peppel.

Police secured some evidence from the robbery such as three laptop computers, one tablet computer, two watches, six pocket cameras, 13 gold bracelets, 10 cellphones and some other valuables worth dozens of millions Rupiah. (DWA)