The aftermath of the house fire in Al-Sabahiya.

KUWAIT CITY, May 21: Firefighting teams from the Mangaf and Ahmadi stations successfully contained a house fire in the Al-Sabahiya area on Tuesday evening. The teams promptly responded to the incident and brought the fire under control without any reported injuries.

KUWAIT CITY, May 20: By order of the Hawalli Public Prosecution, a grocery store worker has been referred to the central prison on charges of blackmailing a 13-year-old girl. The incident reportedly began when the child allegedly took some sweets from the store and attempted to leave without paying. The worker later used the incident to extort and intimidate her.

According to security sources, the father of the girl, a 51-year-old expatriate, was alerted by neighbors who found his daughter in distress and crying. She had been detained by the store worker.

The girl told her father that the worker had confronted her the day before, accusing her of taking sweets without paying. He then forcibly took money from her bag and threatened to report her to the police unless she returned to him daily. On the day of the incident, she complied with his demand, but he instructed her to stay out of sight of the store’s surveillance cameras. Alarmed, she screamed, prompting passersby to intervene.

The accused later confessed to the crime during questioning by Hawalli detectives. A case has been registered as felony number 115/2025.

KUWAIT CITY, May 20: The Jahra Public Prosecutor has ordered the registration of a serious criminal case involving the alleged theft of KD 10,200 from the bank account of a 68-year-old expatriate. The case has been officially classified as a forgery in a bank document and categorized as a public funds felony, a charge that carries severe legal consequences. The Prosecutor also issued a directive for the immediate arrest and interrogation of the suspect named in the complaint.

The case unfolded when the elderly expatriate filed a report at the Jahra police station, recounting the sequence of events. He explained that last Monday evening, after realizing that his mobile phone credit had been depleted, he visited a mobile phone store in the Jahra area. There, he asked the store employee to recharge his line with KD 5.

Due to complications in completing the transaction, the expat decided to entrust the process to the store worker, handing over both his bank card and PIN—a decision that would prove costly. The employee completed the recharge, and the man was able to use his phone again that evening.

However, the next morning brought an unpleasant surprise. Upon checking his bank account, the expat discovered 12 unauthorized withdrawals had been made overnight. He immediately rushed to his bank, only to learn that a total of KD 10,200 had been drained from his account using 12 separate electronic transactions or links.

The elderly man accused the store employee, who had access to his card and PIN, of being behind the fraud. He expressed concern that the suspect might have fled the country and urged authorities to place the individual’s name on national and international wanted lists.

In response to the incident, a security source reissued a public warning about the dangers of sharing personal banking information. He emphasized that a PIN is strictly confidential and should never be shared, no matter how trustworthy the situation may seem.