MALAYSIAN public spaces and homes are so laden with prized assets and objects that they constantly attract thieves who steal and fence valuables with ease.
Besides targeting cars and motorcycles to strip for components, thieves burglarise homes for cash, jewellery, electrical and electronic appliances like laptops and smartphones. That's not all.
They also steal durian — the expensive musang king variety especially — from unprotected orchards, and rustle cattle ahead of major festive seasons when demand for meat spikes.
Years ago, thieves favoured steel manhole covers and brass water meters from residential homes.
The authorities have since switched to non-recyclable composite material with zero scrap value. Now, thieves target public utility and industrial cables, made valuable by surging copper and metal prices.
Top targets: telecom and rail copper cables, reflected by the recent Express Rail Link (ERL) airport corridor and national Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) cable thefts.
Thieves brazenly infiltrate substations and restricted rail lines to steal copper busbars and drain transformer oil that are illegally processed and resold as industrial lubricant.
Once petty thieves, they have morphed into organised syndicates, systematically siphoning public property and reselling them by the kilo.
Fenceable items must possess intrinsic value, no traceable serial numbers and an eager black market: easy to hide or transport, cut, unbolt or carry, and available in unsecured or predictable locations that yield high cash-per-kilo or cash-per-unit.
High demand is a given, but this is critical: stolen items are linked to a nefarious network of buyers — operators of unregulated scrap yards, rogue pawnshops or online buyers.
The recent cable thefts at the ERL track network and the Salak Tinggi station may net thieves between RM6,500 and RM13,000 —a day's work capitalising on high global copper prices.
To stop the thieves, authorities must stymie the rogues' ability to operate and their supply chain. Once indicted, penalties must include imprisonment and heavy fines.
In the long term, the best deterrent is to choke their market by inspecting and revoking licences of unscrupulous scrap disposal factories and illegal scrap metal dealers.
These dealers must digitally log all copper sales, to be cross-referenced against public utility logs for missing cables. Also go after every conceivable fence.
Prasarana and Malaysia Rail Link have shifted to intelligent CCTV using artificial intelligence to trigger alerts, marking cables with invisible trace-element liquid and embedding micro-trackers.
Repeated thefts of critical infrastructure seriously threaten public safety, essential services and economic activity. Define the thefts as a national security threat marshalled by relevant pre-emptive laws.
The priority is implementation, backed by clear responsibilities, coordinated intelligence-sharing and measurable enforcement results.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd