Officials at Monywa’s Thanboddhay Pagoda discovered yesterday morning that four of the pagoda’s donation boxes had been drilled from the bottom and robbed overnight. The thieves somehow managed to evade five security officers and 21 CCTV cameras. It is estimated that they got away with roughly MMK2 million.
Ba Lwin, chairman of the pagoda’s board of trustees told 7Day, “The pagoda opens at 6 am, and there were a lot of people coming to pray. We’re going through CCTV footage right now. They didn’t take all of money in the donation boxes; they only took the large bills. They put the money under the rugs that we have laid out for worshippers so that no one would suspect anything.”
Although the pagoda has 15 donation boxes in total, the thieves only burglarized the four boxes that received the most donations. According to pagoda officials, one of the boxes that was robbed regularly receive over K10 million during peak pilgrimage season, and around K6 million during low season.
“The pagoda closes at 9 pm, and we only lock the gates once everyone has left. The thief stayed behind when the gates were being shut. According to CCTV footage, they broke into the boxes around midnight and left [with the money] when the pagoda reopened in the morning,” explained one of the pagoda’s security officers.
The pagoda’s board of trustees has opened a case at the Monywa Police Station.
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