Man stole 12 statues from M'sia temple & threw them into sea, 4 recovered

A man broke into a temple in Malacca, Malaysia, and stole 12 statues on the afternoon of Jun. 12.

The statues were later found to have been thrown into the sea.

Four of the statues were successfully recovered after three days of searching.

One was found severely damaged.

CCTV footage showed a man driving off with the statues

Li Yunjie, deputy head of the temple's youth group, said the temple directors were preparing to close the temple at around 7pm on Jun. 12 when they realised numerous statues were missing, according to China Press.

After reviewing the CCTV footage, they found that a middle-aged man who lived nearby had entered the temple at around 3pm that day, where he proceeded to pack 12 statues into three boxes before driving off.

Li noted that the statues that disappeared included those of Nezha, the Monkey King, and Tua Pek Kong.

With the police's help, they managed to catch the alleged thief and learned that the statues had been thrown into the sea.

The temple received help from many different search parties, including a man who contacted his friends to have them send out fishing boats to search for the statues.

They managed to recover a 30cm-tall statue of Tua Pek Kong after three hours of searching.

The Tua Pek Kong statue is of great significance to the temple, where it is often used to represent the temple in attending Tua Pek Kong Association activities.

After three days of searching, the search parties successfully found three more statues, though the whereabouts of the rest remain unknown.

The statue of Tua Pek Kong and two other statues of Prince Nezha were successfully repaired, though one Prince Nezha statue could not be repaired as a limb broke off.

Li said the temple's next actions would be repurchasing statues of Nezha and the Monkey King.

Some of the lost statues — including the recovered Tua Pek Kong statue and a Nezha statue — were significant religious icons that had been worshipped at the temple since its founding in 1986.

Some of the lost statues were made abroad in places, such as China and Taiwan.

The theft caused the temple to lose an estimated RM20,000 to RM30,000 (S$6,000 to S$9,000).

Li said the board of directors decided not to pursue legal action against the man for the theft, but warned that he would be held legally accountable if a similar incident occurred again.

Not the first time

This was not the first time the alleged thief has taken a statue from the temple.

The man, who is a resident near by the temple, is believed to have mental health issues.

He is understood to have taken a Guan Yin statue without permission around half a year ago.

He was then caught and warned by the board of directors not to do it again.

The temple continues to be open to the public.

Top image via China Press