“Unpeaceful spirits will haunt thieves ‘urning’ living from the dead for rest of their lives”

 

THE criminal mind is an amazing thing, always plotting new ways to beat the system. The latest scheme that has both police and public concerned is the theft of urns used to store ashes of the recently departed.

As reported in the New Straits Times (NST), police received a report on Feb 26 with a cemetery management (Nirvana Asia Group) claiming that several urns had gone missing from a columbarium at its cemetery.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the cemetery management had received an international WhatsApp voice call from an individual claiming to be in possession of the missing urns.

Editor’s Note: As per the attached statement, Nirvana Asia Group suspects Cambodian scam syndicates are behind recent urn thefts from memorial parks, henceforth describing such incidents as organised and pre-meditated while echoing similar crimes reported in Hong Kong and South Korea targeting funeral institutions.

“Police are investigating the case under Section 380 (theft), Section 384 (extortion) and Section 297 (trespassing in burial places) of the Penal Code,” confirmed Nilai district police chief Superintendent Johari Yahya.

Earlier, police confirmed receiving a report regarding the suspected theft of more than 20 urns from Perpetual Memorial Park in Kulai.

For the criminal(s), there are several ‘upsides’ to this crime. Firstly, there are no unruly and uncooperative hostages to deal with.

Secondly, the families of these “victims” are almost always more than willing to pay a ransom for the ‘souls’ of their loved ones. Thirdly, the criminal(s) avoids the very serious kidnapping and even possible murder charges if things go awry.

The news was shared on NST Online’s Facebook platform with more than a few commenters keen to share their thought on this latest show of criminal bravado. One commenter labelled it “kidnapping on another level”.

Memorial parks are cash rich businesses and the criminal fraternity will want their slice of the pie, some amateur sleuths pointed out. This theft was to blackmail or extort these memorial parks as well as demand ransom for the return of the urns.

Some wondered just how it was even possible to steal 30 urns undetected given their size and weight. An inside job was the insinuation.

More than one surprised commenter asked where was the security and CCTVs (closed-circuit televisions)? Surely, it could not have been as easy as walking in and out of the columbarium.

The inevitable consequence will be more heavily guarded facilities in the future.

Some commenters also surmised where the presumed local thieves got their inspiration from.

It was also opined that those responsible for this daring heist will have to deal with the spirits of the stolen urns. But it was also noted that these thieves would have done the necessary by utilising black magic to contain the spirits.

The deep sense of unease this spate of urn thefts was best summed up by one depressed commenter who lamented that this was “kidnapping the underworld” and that even “the dead also can’t RIP”. 

 - Focus Malaysia