TAMAN Hutchings residents are having sleepless nights, no thanks to a group which has been making a din in the wee hours at the neighbourhood’s playground.
They claimed that the group of drunken men would gather at the playground on motorbikes and make loud noises there.
To make things worse, they would talk loudly for hours after midnight, disturbing the residents.
There are some 70 houses at the quiet residential area in Island Glades.
A Streets check recently found a liquor bottle left at the site.
A resident, who wished to be identified only as Wong, said the men would come separately to meet at the playground.
“They would sometimes smash the bottles after getting drunk.
“The broken glasses are a threat to the safety of children and visitors,” said Wong when met with her granddaughter.
Another resident, who wished to be known as Sharimah, claimed that a car hijack and robbery case was linked to the drunken group.
“I am worried that similar incidents may occur to us.
“The group of about 10 people would talk loudly until about 4am,” she said.
Sharimah was referring to an incident earlier this month where a couple and their two teenage daughters at Taman Hutchings were robbed at home before they were taken on a two-hour terror ride in the early morning.
In the incident at about 4.30am, two parang-wielding masked men broke into the family’s house after prising open the backdoor.
The duo were dissatisfied after getting only about RM4,000 and demanded that the family withdraw money from an automated teller machine.
The robbers carjacked the family’s new Mercedes Benz E200 and took the family on a terrifying ride across the Penang bridge to the mainland.
The husband, however, managed to escape and sought help.
The duo later abandoned his wife and two daughters at a shopping mall in Prai before speeding off with the car which has since been recovered.
State Criminal Investigation Department chief SAC Mazlan Kesah said the police had stepped up patrols inTaman Hutchings.
The state government has also installed additional lighting at the playground following the incident.
