A Tamil newspaper journalist who lost personal belongings worth a total of RM5,500 to burglars last night lashed out police for their slow response to his complaint , especially after he had been robbed twice before.

S NONE P Bala, 49, of the Tamil Nesan's Ipoh bureau said his laptop and camera had been taken away by the culprits who broke into his office ( right ) last night.

A veteran of 30 years, he had left his office for a function at 8.30pm, after locking his laptop worth RM1,500 and his camera valued at RM4,000 in the office drawer.

Returning to his office at 11 pm, he was shocked to see his whole office in a mess and both the laptop and camera missing.

But lucky for him, the thieves left both the company's desk top computer and the fax machine behind but instead had searched for cash and found the two items in the locked drawer.

Bathroom window broken

Upon checking the back portion of his office, he saw the bathroom window broken and signs of attempts at breaking the false ceiling in the bathroom and to go up to the first floor which houses the Perak News Vendors Association.

But the concreted top floor frustrated them, so they turned to Bala's office on the ground floor and took the two items.

The victim at once lodged a police report at the New Town police station at 11.40pm but was told to go to the Old Town police station and report the incident to the A Team office.

Bala was then told to go back and wait at his office, for the police team A's arrival.

He waited until 1.30am but there was no sign of the police, only a phone call informing him that the team would came the following morning as they were short of manpower.

Bala suspects the burglars to be drug addicts and if the police had swiftly responded to his report, they may have arrested them while they were still in the neighbourhood.

During his 20 years in the Ipoh Tamil Nesan office along Jalan Chow Cheng Bok, Bala had personal experience of attempted break-in and thefts.

In the first incident, about 10 years ago someone or a group had tried to prise open his office's steel shutters but failed.

In the second incident, about two years ago, the side window of his car parked in front of the office had been broken into and a camera worth RM2,500 stolen.

Two months ago, his car had been broken into again and a car radio valued atRM500 taken away, while Bala was at a temple function.

"If the police are slow in responding to the theft of a journalist's belongings, just imagine how the man in the street is treated," a furious Bala told Malaysiakini today.

He said it was all every well to hear about the various measures taken by top state police officers to reduce the crime rate in Perak but in reality such messages do not reach their subordinates.