Inspite of diving into the depths of the ocean to make his fortune, a fisherman in Indonesia looked up and make a decision to strike gold – by stealing it off the top of a mosque. But his plan didn’t award him with a promising future as he was caught by the local police on March 7, according to local media, days after he had conformed his wrong doing on March 4. The police had recovered the 2.6kg of gold decorations – which had been affixed to the dome of the Al Huda Mosque in Indonesia’s Maluku province – buried in a forest at nearby Kayeli Village, reported Indonesian media outlet Kompas.
Kayeli Village head Fandi Ashari Wael told Kompas that the stolen loot, valued at 3 billion Indonesian rupiah (S$256,940), was the planning of miners, villagers and the village government. They began gathering gold in 2013. The gold decorations, which involved a gold sculpture of the word Allah in Arabic, had become a symbol of pride for the village, he said. Maluku news outlet Orasi Rakyat reported that police had put forward in light, the recovered items, along with the suspect, at a news conference on March 11.
The 67-year-old fisherman, known as Amin Gay, had left Kayeli Village by speedboat after attempting to hide the stolen decorations on the same day, police revealed. He was arrested in Namlea Village – which is seen across a sea from Kayeli – on March 7, and taken back to the scene of the crime to reconstruct his theft, as villagers saw. According to Harian Kompas, he committed his theft with the support of ladders and other important things. Police also says that he told them that he had no other option but to steal the gold because he was in debt.