Security forces here have arrested nine people suspected of being involved in 287 home burglaries and stealing money and items worth more than SR5.5 million. Police revealed that one of the suspects, who worked at a gold mall, was responsible for hiding the stolen money and goods. A police spokesman said the suspects admitted their crimes and said they hid the stolen money inside the minarets of mosques in remote areas, in flagrant disrespect of the sanctity of these holy places. Some items were hidden in abandoned buildings and fields, he added. Police said that all the stolen money and items were returned to their rightful owners. Qassim security forces showed a film explaining how the suspects broke into houses. At a press conference held Friday at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department in Buraidah, Lt. Col Fahd Ali Al-Habadan, Qasim police spokesman, provided details of the crimes, which were committed over the last six months. “The Investigations Department stated that home burglaries have been on the rise lately and not enough details have been available,” he said. “Preliminary investigations have shown that in some cases, the burglars used dangerous weapons such as guns to terrify, threaten and force children and housemaids to tell them where money and jewelry were kept.” One suspect assaulted and raped a housemaid and used a gun to scare the children to keep quiet, he said. Al-Habadan said the perpetrators also used cunning methods to break into houses. First, they read the electricity bill, which is usually left outside a house on top of the electricity meter, to find the name of the house owner. Then they would search for the owner's phone number and call the number to make sure he was not home. They also monitored the house and knocked on the door to make sure nobody was home. __
