TAIF, 12 June 2007 — Many factors are contributing to the spread of thefts in the Kingdom. Both negligence on the part of the victims and slyness of the thieves play a role in the increase of robberies, according to a report in Al-Madinah newspaper.
Women’s handbags and mobiles are common items that thieves look for. Breaking into cars, homes and commercial stores is also becoming common.
According to a study done in this field, most perpetrators are unemployed young men from poor families. Their ages vary, and their educational level is low. They make up two thirds of the total crimes committed in the Kingdom. The rest are illegal migrants, who in most cases after being abandoned by their original employers turn to stealing.
Maghood Saeed Al-Zahrani, owner of a commercial store, said, “My store is in the building where I reside. It was robbed two times. The first time they broke the lock, and stole money and everything valuable that was easy to carry. Police came to check the place and took fingerprints, but failed to identify the criminals. The second time, police identified the criminals and arrested them. Both times, the thefts were carried out in the middle of the night by men in their early twenties.”
Zahrani believes that in order to end this phenomenon, parents should take better care of their sons from the beginning, and raise them with good ethics and Islamic principles.
Zahrani also emphasized the importance of police patrolling the streets regularly. He believes that the country needs to resolve the unemployment problem, because it’s considered to be one of the main reasons why the youth are resorting to stealing.
Muhammad Al-Sawat said, “I was visiting one of my relatives in Jeddah, when some neighbor called me and told me that my apartment door was broken. I rushed back home to find that my wife’s gold worth SR50,000 disappeared. My brother called the police, but they failed to find the robbers.”
Safran Al-Rabie said after finshing shopping in a Taif mall he went to the cashier, but found his wallet missing. “It had more than SR1,500, my ID and my ATM card. My account had SR6,000 at that time. I rushed to the bank to stop my account. The employee refused and told me that the bank manager was responsible for that, and that he wouldn’t be available until the afternoon. When he came, he told me that my account was empty and that the withdrawal was done today,” he said.
“I urge authorities to put extra police patrols in the streets to guarantee the safety of citizens,” said Awad Al-Sawat.
