More Malaysian houseowners invest in security equipment now

PETALING JAYA: Concern over house break-ins have led an increasing number of middle-income urbanites to install closed-circuit television that allows them to observe what is going on in their homes even when they are away.

Security equipment distributors said most of their customers are middle-income people living in terrace houses, condominiums and flats who pay between RM3,000 and RM10,000 to install a default package of eight cameras, a television set and a DVR recorder.

Market prices for CCTV cameras range from RM150 to RM600 a unit. A basic DVR recording device costs around RM1,500.

Checks by The Star showed that homeowners usually had CCTV cameras installed in the porch, side and back areas, living room, kitchen, stairs and bedrooms.

Centrix Security Sdn Bhd general manager Jeffrey Tan said the manufacturer has seen a 40% jump in sales of its equipment, particularly CCTV cameras, in the last three months.

According to market estimates, he said, Malaysians were spending over RM5mil per month buying CCTV units.

He said the company now supplied over 5,000 units a month to distributors and expected sales to rise as people became more security- conscious.

Secom Malaysia Sdn Bhd gene-ral manager Kenji Ishida agreed that residents had become
more concerned about home security.

“They have formed associations. Some even invest in CCTVs for the whole neighbourhood while others put up perimeter fencing and set up guardhouses,” Ishida said in an e-mail.

Tham Kok Hing, who runs his own CCTV distribution and installation business, said customers usually order a package deal which includes eight CCTV units.

However, an average double-storey terrace house requires only four cameras to cover all prime vantage points, according to Centrix Application and Development manager Fabian Low Soon Tuck.

“One camera should be placed in the porch area and another at the back of the house. Inside, a camera should be placed in the living room as that is the place where most robberies start and one in the kitchen because most robbers usually enter from the back or through the window,” he said.

Low said customers can have v-cards in their recorders which would sync their CCTV footage online, enabling it to be viewed on mobile devices like laptops and cellphones.

“When an alarm is triggered, users can log on the Internet and see what is going on at home despite being far away,” he said.

According to a National Key Results Area on Reducing Crime analysis by Pemandu (the Performance Management and Delivery unit), house break-ins accounted for 18% of the crime index last year.

Police spokesman ACP Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said there have been many cases where home CCTV footage had been used to apprehend criminals and solve cases.

By NICHOLAS CHENG nicholascheng@thestar.com.my

CCTV system affords safety and peace of mind

PETALING JAYA: Teacher Faruk Senan Abdullah installed 10 CCTV cameras in his house in Penang two months ago after reading about the spate of house break-ins in the newspapers.
“I felt my home needed extra protection besides the alarm system,” he said in a phone interview.

Faruk said he regularly checked on his home by logging into the CCTV footage with his mobile phone while overseas.

Extra eyes: Faruk pointing to the CCTV camera installed in his house after reading about the recent spate of crimes in the newspapers.

 

“The technology is very convenient and I can ensure that my family is safe even when I am away,” Faruk said.

A manager in Damansara Utama who wished to be known only as Ahmad said he and his family feel safer after he had several CCTV cameras installed in their home after a few scary incidents.

“Once, a few thugs tried to break into my house while we were at home. My wife was mugged in broad daylight outside our own house a few years ago.

“That's when I decided to install eight cameras in the hope that the sight of them would make criminals think twice about breaking in,” Ahmad said.

Despite several break-ins in the neighbourhood, Ahmad said he and his family feel safer and have not been targeted since installing the CCTV system.

For Yong (not her real name), the four CCTV cameras installed at her home did not just catch the robbers in the act, but also helped the police to bring them to justice.

The mother of four said her home was burgled by two men and a woman one afternoon while she and her family were out shopping.

According to the camera footage, they climbed over the front gate after realising no one was home.

“The two men pried the front door open while the woman blocked the front and back camera and distracted passers-by. But the side camera that was obscured by the air-condition unit caught their faces and the police could identify them,” Yong said.

The trio were later arrested in Mont Kiara.

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A need to invest in security

A need to invest in security

With the recent spate of attacks, robberies and snatch thefts, we really need to pay more attention to security issues – with emphasis on ‘pay’.

On Sunday, I visited a friend who was staying in a hotel along Old Klang Road in Petaling Jaya. At the time, there was another man in the room.

Minutes later, there was a knock on the door. A boy rushed in, breathless.

The other man in the room had left the boy and a couple of girls in his car while visiting the friend. Someone on a motor-cycle had knocked on the car window, asking for directions. And when they lowered the windows, the knives had come out.

The trio lost what little money they had, along with their handphones. They couldn’t even call to tell the guy about their problem. Thus, the dash to the hotel room.

Reality had hit close to home, even as we were talking about the recent spate of robberies in car parks and malls.

Call it a weird coincidence, but that hotel overlooks the scene of probably the most-publicised case of car park abduction and assault in the country. It was here, along Old Klang Road, that Canny Ong, after being abducted in Bangsar, was raped, murdered and torched in 2003.

And only last week, I had visited the Bangsar Shopping Centre from where she had been taken.

After the recent spate of robberies and attacks on women in malls and hypermarkets, I had wanted to see how much the security in the mall had improved. I must say I came away fairly impressed.

The car park was quite brightly lit, there were guards at both entrances and exits – and they were peering into the cars that were entering and leaving. I guess that’s to ensure no abduction ever takes place again.

There were a couple of guys on bikes, and a couple of others on bicycles. And yet another was walking from car to parked car, checking if all were secure. And the guy in the long-sleeved shirt slouched near the fire hydrant? He was the supervisor.

These were not your retired pakciks and uncles, trying make some extra money. They were Nepali army-trained personnel. They looked nice and smiled at everyone but one wrong move, and they can turn nasty. Really nasty, I am told.

Vincent Tan, the BSC asset and property management senior manager says they have 350 CCTV cameras covering all basements and floors.

They’ve also got dog units that patrol the area after dark. And if you are afraid to walk to your car at night, all you have to do is ask and the guards come along in buggies to take you to your vehicle.

More importantly, there are these blue pillars with panic buttons on them. You press the buttons, and the guards come running. They are even to be found in the ladies’ washrooms – the panic buttons, not the guards.

Of course, all that sounds good but I did have a couple of unanswered questions. Other malls are mulling ladies-only parking areas but I didn’t see any such markings there. There may be plans, though, says a friend who works there.

And how many people would know about the panic buttons? There is little by way of education.

I would have plastered notices of these measures all over the mall to make sure everyone would know what to do – and also tell the ladies to take note of the nearest blue column when they park. That way, they would know where to run when faced with an emergency.

It’s bad enough having nowhere to run when robbers hit you at home, or target the elderly, as they have been doing recently. Being robbed while out having retail therapy is hardly therapeutic.

I would think that security, indeed, is something worth investing in as far as malls and hypermarkets are concerned. After all, a mall that’s seen to be safe is likely to bring in the crowds and the paying customers. The key word, however, is “investing”.

Security guards, by and large, get paid pittance. And they have to throw their bodies in the line of fire. Guards in many factories and residential areas are paid as low as RM700 a month.

And in the malls, I am told, they may get RM900 to RM1,000. And I know of Myanmars who help out at hawker stalls and earn about RM2,000 a month!

Maybe we should be rethinking the value of the security guards. After all, if we expect them to lay their life on the line to save ours, we should be ready to pay a fair price.

After all, it’s also the price of our limbs and our lives.

Why Not? By D. RAJ

> The writer is dreaming of the day when we can have mall cops – friendly, well-paid policemen who ensure our security everywhere. But, for now, that remains a dream. 

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 Be Alert and Vigilance to Stay Safe!
The old, the vicious, and the uncaring heartless passers-by

The old, the vicious, and the uncaring heartless passers-by

GEORGE TOWN: Seven people walked past snatch theft victim Tan Kim Chuan (pic), 60, without lifting a finger to help her as she lay unconscious on the road with a cracked skull at the Rifle Range flats.

CCTV footage showed her lying on the road for about seven minutes (see sequence of events).

Kim Chuan, who fell and knocked her head on the road in the 6.02am incident on Tuesday, succumbed to her injuries nine hours later at the Penang Hospital.

Her sister Lay Yong, 63, wants the passers-by “to listen to their conscience”.

“Those who saw her should have done something the least they could have done was shout for help.

“How could they have just walked by? I am angry but what can I do?” Lay Yong said at the Penang Hospital mortuary yesterday.

Tears flow: Investigating officer Asst Supt Wong Yeut Oon sharing Lay Yong’s painful loss at the Penang Hospital mortuary.

She said Kim Chuan was on her way to the family-owned coffeeshop in Carnarvon Street.

She would take the bus every morning to help out at the coffeeshop.

“My sister was the sort of person who would not hesitate to help others. The snatch thief who did this to her was heartless,” she said.

Kim Chuan, a widow who had just moved into the Rifle Range flats two weeks ago, was walking alone near Block J of the flats when her handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist.

At about 6.10am, three good Samaritans lifted her to the side of the road and called for an ambulance.

Sequence of events.

Penang Hospital Department of Forensic Medicine head Datuk Dr Zahari Noor said the post-mortem showed the cause of death was multiple injuries to the head.

“She suffered internal bleeding in the head and the back of her skull cracked when she fell and hit the road the impact was strong,” he said.

The body will be cremated in Batu Gantong at 2pm today.

Meanwhile, George Town OCPD Asst Comm Gan Kong Meng urged the public to help police in catching the suspect.

“As we are unable to be everywhere at the same time, we value the information from the public, especially from those who may have witnessed the incident,” he told reporters after paying his last respects to Kim Chuan at the Mount Erskine funeral parlour.

He also advised the public to always offer help to those in need.

“A swifter response could have saved her life,” said ACP Gan.

Reports by LOURDES CHARLES, CHRISTINA CHIN, STEVEN CHIEW, CHONG KAH YUAN and HAFIZ MARZUKHI - The Star/Asia News Network

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Beware the smash and grab robbers

PETALING JAYA: Smash and grab robbers are among the criminal threats faced by the average Malaysian driver today.

These menace on wheels prey on drivers when they stop at traffic light junctions by smashing the passenger side window of the car and grabbing valuables placed on the passenger seat.

Despite it not being a new ploy, people still continue to fall victim to such smash and grab robbers.

Statistics released by the Royal Malaysian Police showed that smash and grab cases are still contributing to the national crime index.

“Smash and grab cases which are classified as snatch theft cases, are a part of the 319 cases of snatch thefts recorded in May and June this year,” said the report.

The reason for this, said Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohamed, is that most people do not take the necessary steps to protect themselves from smash and grab robbers.

“The obvious one is that people should not place valuables like mobile phones and handbags on the passenger side seat while driving.

“However, there are still many who place valuables on the passenger side seat and make themselves easy targets,” he said recently.

ACP Arjunaidi said it was important for the people not to panic.

“Drivers have to be vigilant at all times and should not panic no matter what happens, so that they know how to respond to a situation,” he said.

Citing a videoclip he was shown recently of a man smashing a car window about 10 times without breaking the glass, he said the woman driver just stared blankly at the man.

“If she was alert and had not panicked, she could have shielded herself from harm and called the police or gone to a safe place,” he said.

He also said basic steps like always being aware of one’s surroundings and keeping valuables out of plain sight helped.

“Tinting windows can also help because the film could prevent the window from shattering easily which would hinder the thieves,” he said.

By M. KUMAR kumar@thestar.com.my The Star/Asia News Network

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Be Alert and Vigilance to Stay Safe!

Be Alert and Vigilance to Stay Safe!

Smash-grab victim takes to the Internet to spread message of vigilance

PETALING JAYA: A vehicle smash-and-grab victim has set up a website called Be Alert Stay Safe to spread the message of vigilance.

Crime Scene

 The website, www.bealertstaysafe.tumblr.com, features stories from victims as well as those who witness similar incidents.

 Ling (who only wants to be known by her first name) said: “I'm so tired of people just talking about it. I'm very angry at what's happening and Malaysians need to stop talking and take action.”

She had lost her laptop and six months' worth of dissertation research in an instant when the assailants smashed her car during a traffic jam.

In an interview recently, Ling said her traumatic experience was worsened by the “nonchalant attitude” of the motorists around her, who did not bother to get out of their car despite witnessing the incident.

Another woman who has taken to the Internet to spread awareness is Anna Chew, whose women's e-magazine (www.venusbuzz.com) runs an awareness campaign called the CARing project.


Besides featuring articles on self-protection tips, the website also has a “car park rating system” where people can rate the safety of shopping mall car parks in the Klang Valley.

The ratings are based on 10 questions, including whether there were CCTVs, active security guard patrolling, buggy services and panic buttons installed.

Chew said reports would be compiled based on the ratings received and handed over to each shopping mall's management.

“We hope the respective managements will take this seriously and not implement superficial services just to make themselves look good,” she stressed, adding that women must be proactive.

When contacted, Malaysian Association for Shopping and High-Rise Complex Management general manager Evelyn Lo said they would be having an open dialogue with Bukit Aman next Friday.

“We will be discussing a variety of security issues and we have invited all the shopping malls,” she said, urging all mall visitors to remain alert of their surroundings despite existing security systems.

Mid Valley Megamall public relations assistant manager Stephanie Tan said security had been beefed up in the mall's car park after a recent assault on a female shopper there.

She said the mall had increased the number of panic buttons, adding that these were prominently displayed on black and red checkered pillars marked with a “HELP” sign.

“We also have escort services for which shoppers can request from the information counter, car park lobby security booths or our hotline,” she said.

By ISABELLE LAI isabellelai@thestar.com.my