Police here arrested five South Asians for theft of gold ornaments amounting to SR2.5 million after a coast-to-coast investigation. The jewelry was stolen from the house of a Saudi family in Dammam with whom one of the suspects had worked as caretaker for the past 15 years, police said. The family was away on holiday when the caretaker contacted his accomplices in Riyadh and Jeddah to carry out the theft, police said without revealing further details about the suspects. According to police, the caretaker traveled to Riyadh to plot the theft with his accomplices. They then traveled together to Dammam where the accomplices checked into a hotel. When the caretaker gave them the all-clear signal they entered the house and cracked open the safe using tools. Some of the gold ornaments dropped from the safe as they hurriedly left the house with the booty. At the hotel, they broke the gold jewelry into pieces so they would not be recognized when sold. They, however, decided to wait a few months before trying to sell the gold. The next day, the accomplices left Dammam and the caretaker went back to the house. When the family returned, they found the broken safe and called the police who lifted fingerprints from the scene and launched an investigation. Police said the caretaker told them that he had left the house only to perform prayer or grab something from the nearby store. But since there was no sign of forced entry, the police pressed on with their questioning and the caretaker eventually admitted to the theft. Security chief Lt.Gen. Saad Al-Qahtani then alerted all police departments across the Kingdom to nab the other suspects. A search operation led by Jeddah police chief Gen. Ali Al-Ghamdi led to the taxi driver who had taken the men to Riyadh and Dammam and the blacksmith who had broken up the gold ornaments into pieces. Their share of the gold was found in their possession. The other suspects were arrested in Riyadh and Yanbu with more quantities of the gold. They were all transferred to Jeddah Police for further investigations and trial. – Okaz __
