MENGWI

A house guard was menaced and tied up by thieves who may have used the absence of police on polling day security duties to break into a Dutch-owned villa at Abiansemal at 2.40am last Monday and steal goods valued at Rp82 million (US$9,000).

Guard I Made Budiarta told police he was threatened with a knife and forced to tell them where the villa’s master bedroom was before being tied up by the thieves. The villa is owned by a Dutch national police named as Jost Van Greken, 51, who is away from Bali, in the Netherlands.

Their haul included a laptop, a black leather bag, two antique watches, a silver bracelet, four Nokia mobile phones, a pair of handmade golf buttons on the hand made of gold and Rp4 million ($442) in cash, total value Rp82 million.

Police are investigating but at week’s end had no leads. Local police chief I Gusti Made Sudiana blamed the heavy election security workload for the lack of progress.