By: T.N. Alagesh

KUANTAN, MALAYSIA: A news reporter here is now herself the focus of news.

The reporter for an English daily was tied up by robbers who broke into her home on Thursday. They escaped with cash and valuables worth about RM28,000 and also left traces of what was believed to be a ritual.

She is the latest victim in her neighbourhood, which had suffered about 10 similar robberies in the past six months.

The robberies are believed to have been carried out by the same group of men who performed strange rituals as part of their crime.

The 43-year-old victim said she was asleep with her four sons at their home in Kampung Jeram, Beserah, when three men entered her room at 3am by breaking down the door using an empty cooking gas cylinder.

The trio tied up her two older sons, aged 13 and 11, but left alone her two younger children, aged 9 and 7, who were also in the same room.

The victim's husband was at work overseas.

"The victim said she had gone to bed with her children at 11.30pm and was awakened by a loud bang on the room door.

"When the men made their way in, I screamed repeatedly before one of them brandished a screwdriver and ordered me to keep quiet.

"The men were not wearing any masks to cover their faces. They tied our hands before asking me to show them where the valuables were," she said.

About 20 minutes later, the men left the house with cash, two laptops and jewellery.

When she ran downstairs to call the police, the victim discovered leftover food and empty water bottles in her kitchen, indicating that the robbers had helped themselves to a meal.

"I also discovered three squeezed lime skins on the floor and human waste in the drain outside the house," she said.

Residents in the neighbourhood are now in fear over the robberies.

"My neighbour was robbed on Sept 5, and the suspects used the same method of breaking into the room with a gas cylinder before leaving the lime skins and human waste outside the house.

"They seem to keep a close watch on their potential victim before striking just before dawn, when everyone at home is fast asleep," she said.

She also said that police had found a skullcap belonging to one of the robbers near her house.