IPOH: All the jokes about mother-in-laws seemed to be lost on a man who has been detained together with his wife and her mother for suspected involvement in car thefts.
Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Sum Chang Keong said the 30-year-old man was a member of group which had been nicknamed “Specky Gang” because its members were mostly tech-savvy guys who wore glasses.
Police were still verifying the extent of the involvement of the 27-year-old wife and the 51-year-old mother-in-law.ACP Sum said three of them were nabbed on Monday evening after a car chase.
"Upon a tip-off, we trailed a grey Toyota Estima from First Garden to a traffic light in Buntong where we saw a man alighting from the vehicle to get into a silver Honda HRV.
"As we approached them, both cars sped off and we pursued the Estima," he said after a monthly district police gathering at the Pasir Pinji police station yesterday.
Police caught up with the vehicle at the Sungai Pari roundabout where they found the two women while the man surrendered himself.
ACP Sum said the police found various items, believed to be used for their criminal activities, in the Estima.
These included an alarm jamming device, Allen key, spanner, black cellophane tape and three bags with 34 fake road taxes and two forged registration number plates.
“The man also led us to his house in Taman Sepakat, Menglembu where we found the HRV," he said, adding that the vehicle was reportedly stolen in Jelapang earlier on Monday.
ACP Sum said the man had six previous records for car thefts and house break-ins.
“He was formerly an inmate at the Simpang Renggam detention centre. He isn’t your average thief.
“He is well-versed with computers and his group members are experts in stealing cars," he said, adding that they would usually target luxury cars.
“They would disable the alarm before breaking into homes and stealing their car keys and driving off in the vehicle," he said.
“We are now trying to locate the other group members. We believe they have been operating for about two years.”
