KUCHING: After stealing a car, a man then went on to snatch a woman’s handbag before attempting to steal items from a house.

His crime spree ended when he was arrested while committing the third caper.

All this happened in less than two hours.

It begun in Jalan Kong Ping here where the suspect, 24, from Tabuan Foochow broke into a white Toyota and drove it away around 7am yesterday.

The owner, 34, who declined to be named said he went out to work around 6.30am and received a call from his wife around 7am that the car was missing.

Not long after, a woman in Jalan Arang made a call to the police that her handbag was snatched by a man in a white Toyota.

The woman had jotted down the licence plate number and it was confirmed to belong to the earlier victim.

Around 8am, police received another call from a resident staying in Sunny Hill.

The resident claimed that a man had abandoned a white Toyota in front of her house after her husband had spotted him trying to steal her luggage from the porch.

According to the complainant’s brother Lee, 43, from Jalan Nanas, his sister was going to Singapore with her husband on a morning flight and they had placed their luggage in the porch while waiting for their friend to send them to the airport.

“I received a call from my friend staying near my sister’s house telling me that a thief tried to steal from my sister so I rushed to my sister’s house. I was heading to MJC Batu Kawah when I received the call,” said Lee.

Lee said it was his brother-in-law, who was in the living room at the time, who found the suspect holding his luggage.

The suspect was about to place it into the back seat of the Toyota.

His brother-in-law yelled at the suspect and the latter ran to a house nearby to hide but he was given a real hiding by its gutsy owner.

“I was told that the owner let the suspect go after the suspect told him that he had done nothing wrong. The resident had no clue what was going on at the time. The suspect then hid in a bush nearby,” added Lee. Lee reached his sister’s house around 8.30am, as did the police.

Together, they searched for the suspect and met the house owner who had beaten the suspect earlier.

The owner told police that the suspect was hiding in the bush.

The suspect is believed to be under the influence of alcohol when he was nabbed.

He was brought to the Simpang Tiga police station for questioning before being locked up. Police believe he is linked to three more crimes.

Lee lodged a police report on behalf of his sister, who is now in Singapore.

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