10 crimes reported everyday
By Rosli Abidin Yahya 

In the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan, policemen are busy, day in, day out, with at least 10 crimes reported per day in recent months. At times the policemen at the Bandar Seri Begawan police station received as many as 20 crime reports per day, enough to make them having headaches in their zest to solve the cases.

The cases were mostly thefts and break-ins and the upsurge in criminal cases had been attributed by some parties to unemployment amongst the youths of today.

There were also several cases of run-away Indonesian maids in the last few days.

Apart from Bandar Seri Begawan, the suburban areas of Lambak Kanan also recorded as one of the highest crime rate locations in the country. It also attributed youths as the main executer of crimes there.

Some 327 criminal cases were lodged to the police during the period of January to April 2003 in Berakas where 98 of them were thefts and break-ins.

The statistics above were for reported cases and there were some which were not reported.

Last Monday afternoon, a housewife staying in Mile 1 Jalan Tutong was surprised to see an Indonesian male foreign worker hiding in the wardrobe. Her maid had let her boyfriend in to spend the Sunday night at the maid's room.

"I was looking for something at the maid's wardrobe when I saw an Indonesian foreign worker inside.

"The man was so courageous like he did nothing wrong. He answered confidently and that he was only visiting his relative, my Indonesian maid.

"But what kind of visitor he was, sneaking in via the back door and hiding in the wardrobe while we were inside the house," she said. She should have reported the matter to the police as the Indonesian man had performed trespassing and invading her property and privacy, she added.

However, she decided not to lodge a police report but it was the last day for the maid to work in the house as "I was not sure what their plan was".

The maid spent the night at the Indonesian Embassy shelter and she was out of the country by yesterday evening.

On checking her luggage, the maid also tried to steal her gold necklaces and ring, expensive clothes as well as her daughter's clothing, it was learned.

"I have treated the amah with the greatest respect. I never miss paying her salary and I gave her the freedom of the house. However, she misused her freedom and hopefully she would learn the hard lesson," she said.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin