Remove 'Lego mugger' stickers or face fine

Faced with a barrage of stickers following its decision to whitewash a much-loved mural by Ernest Zacharevic, the Johor Bahru City Council has warned that it will now fine offenders. 

“If tenants or shop owners fail to remove the cut-outs (stickers) within one week, they will be (issued a compound fine) of RM500 and if they refuse to pay, they will be (taken) to court,” JB mayor Ismail Karim told The Star. 

He reportedly said that notices have been issued to tenants at Taman Molek, where the mural that featured a Lego robber waiting to pounce on a Lego woman carrying a Chanel bag was originally located.

The notices were issued to those whose walls have been stuck with sticker versions of the mural, which council workers whitewashed last week. 

The sticker versions first emerged at Taman Molek, but they were quickly torn down by council workers. 

However, it was followed by other stickers that were pasted all over town, including at the Chinese cultural museum ion Jalan Tan Hiok Nee and an alley off Jalan Maju. 

Zacharevic had earlier told Malaysiakini that the mural was his take on two things locals said JB is known for - the theme park of Legoland and high crime rate. However, the police have argued that incidents of crime have been going down.

Responding to the mayor, Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang called on the council to end its "wild goose chase" of the mural and "stop harassing tenants and landowners" over the stickers in name of vandalism.

"The (council) is in fact giving “vandalism” a good name as the majority of the people in Johor Baru will support such 'vandalism'," Lim said.

He added that the city council should have used the power of the stickers to draw tourists, instead of scaring them away.

Locals had flocked the mural and later, to the stickers that appeared in various parts of the city, to take pictures, while others travelled from across the causeway to do the same.

Jilted lover is an auxiliary cop

Separately, the daily also reported that the man who fired five shots, injuring his ex-girlfiend's brother, is an auxiliary cop. 

It quoted the man's ex-girlfriend T Josephine as saying that he even tried to climb over the gate when barred from entering her family home. 

It was reported yesterday that he had fired in the air, at her brother's car which was parked outside the house and into the first floor, injuring her brother. Her infant nephew was also in the house. 

The couple were due to be engaged but she broke it off after her family disapproved of him, claiming that he is a drunkard.