Oiled-up underwear bandits strike again

Oiled-up Cambodian bandits in underwear strike again
at 0:02 on June 8, 2005, EST.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Robbers who strike while wearing only underwear, their bodies slathered with oil to make them slippery and harder to catch, have resurfaced in Cambodia, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Two unidentified, underwear-clad burglars robbed homes in the southern province Takeo on May 30, the Cambodia Daily quoted area police chief Sok Tum saying. Police thought they had quashed the "underwear gang" last year, the report said. Residents started a community watch program to prevent such crimes, Sok Tum was quoted saying.

But "the underwear thieves resurfaced in my region because the villagers stopped," he said, adding the residents were busy with farming.

The thieves apparently wear only underwear in an attempt to make themselves harder to identify and douse themselves with oil so they're slick and more difficult to catch. They have been reported in several parts of Takeo, Sok Tum was quoted saying.