Residents fuming over vandalised water vending machines

Residents in Taman Rinting and Taman Megah Ria here are fuming over water vending machines being frequently vandalized in their areas.

A regular patron, Ahmad Rashdan Abdul Rahman, 32, said that the water dispensing vending machines are been vandalised for its coin box located inside the machines.

He added that the vandalised machines will take up to several months to be repaired or replaced and this is causing a lot of inconvenience to the regular patrons including night stall operators who used to purchase the drinking water from these vending machines which are not only clean but also cheap costing twenty sen per liter.

The crimes normally take place between 2am to 4am and believed to be committed by a group of four youths that come in a car.

Ahmad said, the group will park their car right in front of the water vending machine where three youths will get down to commit the crime where one will pretend to be buying the water and the other two will start breaking the locks of the vending machine.

After they have managed to retrieve the coin box, they will rush back to the waiting car and speed off immediately.

Residents who witnessed the crime can only sit and watch the crime been committed and did not take any action for fear of been harm by the group of youths.

He believed that these groups of youths are not only involved in vandalising and stealing the water vending machines in Taman Rinting and Taman Megah Ria but also in Masai, Bandar Baru Seri Alam and Pasir Gudang areas.

Ahmad urged the police to step up patrol in these areas especially between the hours of 2am to 4am to prevent the recurrence of such criminal activities.

Meanwhile, a water vending machine operator said that each time his water vending machine is vandalised, he tend to lose between RM600 to RM1000 that are deposited in the coin box.