The Cleaner And The Bomb

Sometime last week, I read a piece of news that remained embedded in my mind. It is not often that a news article is so memorable. The story? A cleaner found a bomb and brought it immediately to the police station! In my mind, he was a great patriot. I wonder how many people would have done the same? The great majority would perhaps have run away first from the scene before calling the authorities to disarm the bomb. (If the bomber was located nearby, perhaps he would "strategically" set the bomb off.)

Here is the short piece of news:

Man runs with bomb to police

KUALA LUMPUR: A cleaner ran carrying a box containing a mortar bomb and ammunition to the nearest police station in Kenanga, without thinking of the danger.

L. Eamanathan, 28, who found the explosive, decided to “take matters into his own hands” and shocked police personnel at the station.

Police immediately called in a bomb disposal squad, which arrived within minutes to remove the box.

“I wanted to avoid chaos at the scene so much that I did not take into account my own safety,” Eamanathan told reporters.

"Taking matters into his own hands" indeed. IF that bomb had exploded, I doubt that he would have had his hands to do anything useful in the future. But, on the plus side, he averted a danger. Bravo, Mr. Eamanathan! If the Government does not give him a medal for his good deed, it would really raise a few eyebrows.

Today, I read that another good patriot reported his find of RM1.2 million in a gym locker. Now, a few things must be noted. He found the RM1.2 million on the job. But, so did Mr. Eamanathan. So how do they differ? For one, the mysterious finder is the supervisor of the gym outlet. It goes logically that he is entitled to inspect gym lockers to weed out unlawful contents. The strange part of the newspaper report is that the person remains unnamed. And the gym also remains unnamed. Possibly, the gym supervisor wanted to avoid trouble from the person who deposited the RM1.2 million. And the gym management wanted to avoid scaring away customers who may unknowingly be sharing exercising room with robbers. (Or, perhaps they were afraid of scaring away future "deposits" in their gym lockers?)

Here is the article:

RM1.2m find in gym locker

By LOURDES CHARLES

PETALING JAYA: How much money would you have on you when going to the gym or fitness centre for a workout?

Only sufficient for drinks or a meal after a hectic workout, right?

Wrong! Someone apparently had other plans when he or she went to a gym in Subang Jaya last Friday.

A supervisor at a well known fitness centre there found RM1.2mil in a bag in one of the lockers when closing for the day. The centre closes for business around midnight.

Scared and dumbfounded the supervisor contacted his manager who then called the police. Police were equally shocked to find such a huge amount of cash in the locker.

Initial investigations centred on the April 9 KL International Airport heist, where two moneychangers were robbed of RM3.5mil after being shot by six armed robbers.

However, police ruled out that possibility as the money in the bag was in Malaysian currency and British pounds. The KLIA heist was in Singapore dollars.

Selangor police have questioned several suspects in connection with the KLIA heist but have made no arrests.

However, for the gym find they have yet to ascertain where the RM1.2mil came from or who was assigned the locker that day.

Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm II Mazlan Mansor would only confirm that police were investigating, and declined to elaborate.