Facebook sleuthing leads man to precious stolen bonsai

BUTTERWORTH – With Facebook and armchair investigative skills at hand, a 45-year-old managed to track down the thieves of his precious bonsai adenium tree after spotting it on the social media network.
 
Butterworth district police chief Noorzainy Mohd Noor said the man reported his precious bonsai adenium tree missing from his garden at his house here on November 29.
 
Four days later, he made a startling discovery when he found it being peddled online for sale.
 
He said he recognised the plant instantly as it bore the numbers "1-5".
 
He relayed his findings to the police, and a team was dispatched to locate the suspects.
 
They found three suspects aged 36, 22 and 18 at Paya Keladi, and retrieved the plant yesterday.
 
The three have prior records for drug abuse.
 
After further interrogation, police arrested four more suspects at Tasek Gelugor and seized 1g of syabu.
 
Noorzainy said the police also seized a digital weighing scale and a glass bottle.
 
"All seven suspects will be remanded for suspected theft and drug abuse."
 
Meanwhile, a 33-year-old Bangladeshi was killed when a huge piling concrete slab fell on him and an Indonesian worker at the Eon Metal Group factory in the Valdor industrial area in Simpang Empat here.
 
Md Shriful Islam was believed to have died of injury to the head. His body was taken to Penang Hospital for a post-mortem, whereas the Indonesian, Mustofa Salam, was rescued by other workers at the scene.
 
Mustofa only suffered light injuries.
 
In the incident yesterday, the two workers were installing the concrete slab horizontally when the slab fell.
 
A state Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said the matter has been handed over to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) as well as the police to investigate. – The Vibes, December 5, 2020