‘Tuyul’ footprints found at scene of alleged theft, police say thief might be human after all
The mischieving spirit of a little boy was the first to be suspected of theft by residents in the Mengwi sub-district of Badung regency, even if local police don’t seem to buy the supernatural theory.
Yesterday, Ni Nyoman Rusmini, a resident of Banjar Pengabetan neighborhood, reported that some cash had gone missing from her home. Residents of the neighborhood immediately suspected that a tuyul (a spirit resembling a toddler that many believe is used to steal money for its master) was responsible due to the discovery of what looked like a child’s footprints on the dusty hood of Rusmini’s car.
Rusmini said she found the footprints early in the morning when she was about to go to a market nearby. Rusmini later found that the IDR1.2 million (US$85.65) she had kept inside her rice cooker was missing, along with IDR200,000 in her wallet.
Rusmini then reported the missing cash to the police, but they weren’t so quick to blame the spirit of a little boy for the alleged theft, especially as the footprints looked to be too neatly imprinted on the dusty car.
“From the crime scene investigation, the footprints weren’t clear between the right and left [feet]. Other than that, they’re very different from the footprints of young children in general. The suspect’s motivation was to deceive the victim into thinking the thief was a tuyul,” Badung police spokesman Ketut Gede Oka Bawa told Radar Bali today.
Police say they’re still investigating the case.
Believe it or not, tuyuls are said to be highly efficient in stealing money from people’s houses, so much so that some believe that they can break into vaults and safes.
Which leaves us wondering, if tuyuls actually exist, why don’t they just rob banks or ATMs?
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