Snatch thief strikes at JB mugging mural

Call it cruel irony. A woman's handbag was snatched in Johor Baru on Thursday night.

It happened just metres from a wall mural which featured the same crime - before the authorities removed it.

The woman, who was not named, was injured when her bag was snatched by two men on a motorcycle, The Star reported.

A local businesswoman said the incident would not have occurred if the mural - depicting a Lego man wearing a ski mask and holding a knife, waiting to rob a Lego woman carrying a bag - had remained, as it attracted many visitors every day.

"But this place is quiet since the Johor Baru City Council painted over the graffiti," she said of the mural which was removed on Wednesday.

Johor Jaya assemblywoman Liow Cai Tung said she was not surprised at the incident as the area where the mural was painted is crime-prone.

The city council had described the Lithuanianborn Ernest Zacharevic's wall art, which includes the Lego mural and two other art pieces, as "vandalism".

Before the whitewash by the authorities, two local artists had taken it upon themselves to add a police officer with a pair of handcuffs to the mural in a bid to salvage the painting from the controversy.

Zacharevic has urged his fans not to get upset over the removal of the controversial mural.

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