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GEMSTONE SHOP OWNER Ma Hla Ohn Mae showing the empty boxes that the thief left behind after making off with $80,000 worth of gemstones and jade, and $3,000 in cash. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
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HAD beautician Mimi Wong known that some nearby shops had been victims of recent break-ins, she might not have left cash lying around in her beauty salon.
Last Sunday at 9.30am, she returned to her salon, Amanda Asthetique, at Block 253 in Jurong East Street 24, to find it in a mess.
Drawers were ransacked and about $430 in cash and a $150 bangle were missing.
'I was surprised to find out from some residents later that I was not the only one,' said Ms Wong, 46.
Six shops - four of which, including hers, were in the same block - have been hit since early last month. They were broken into about a week apart, starting with a bicycle shop, Bikers Hub, on Feb 5. A bicycle on display worth about $300 was stolen, said shop owner Loo Thian Yew, 50.
Household-goods shop owner Loo Chor Joo, 62, was shocked when he returned after a five-day Chinese New Year break on Feb 11 to find $500 in coins and $4,000 in parking coupons missing.
A thief had entered the shop by smashing a second-floor window.
'I don't even know what else I might have lost,' said the owner of Joo Seng Siang Hang Household Ware.
The hardest hit was Dartargile Trading, a gemstone shop at Block 354, Jurong East Avenue 1.
A neighbour called the shop owner Ma Hla Ohn Mae, 31, at 8am on Feb 21 with news of the break-in. About $80,000 worth of gemstones and jade was taken from three smashed glass counters, plus $3,000 in cash.
The Myanmar national and her husband, Mr T.L. Lim, were in fact about to install a closed-circuit television camera and alarm system.
An alarm in place did save Mr Leow Kee Cheong's watch shop, Yi Tong Watch, from being looted.
His flat is above the shop. At about 3.30am on Feb 12, he heard the alarm go off. Going downstairs to check, he found the thief still trying to prise open the metal shutters.
'I saw a pair of legs under the shutters but when he heard me coming down, he ran off,' said Mr Leow, 51.
The police are investigating the incidents and have stepped up patrols.
Like Madam Ma, many of the shop owners have now decided to install CCTV cameras and alarms - or change to stronger locks.
dawntan@sph.com.sg
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