Suspected thief chased by maids, arrested with help of passerby

A screenshot of the video where the maids chased the man with bricks. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
The man fell down while he was being chased. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

SINGAPORE - Mr Eugene Goh, 33, was driving to have lunch at East Coast Park with his family of five on Thursday (Oct 27) morning when they were greeted by an unusual sight on the road.

At about 11.30am in broad daylight , they saw two women waving frantically and chasing a man along Frankel Estate. The two women had bricks in their hands.

One of the women said to them as Mr Goh's wife wound down the car window: "He has taken the money inside the house. Help me sir, help me please! Our sir is not there (at home)."

The incident was captured on video and reported in Shin Min Daily News on Friday.

In the video, the thief, dressed in a black hoodie, tried to escape but fell down. As he got up, he swung his arms aggressively. At this point, Mr Goh got out of his car. As Mr Goh and the two maids approached the man, he bizarrely threw waste paper from his pockets into the air.

Mr Goh described the situation in a video interview with Shin Min Daily News.

"I went up to him and basically stopped him, telling him that I will not let him go unless he allowed me to check that he has returned all the notes ," he said.

"I noticed that in his glove, he was hiding a pair of foldable scissors so I decided to back away and told him 'I won't come close to you, you better put down everything'. I did a quick search. At that point, the police came so I just handed him to the police and went back to my own car," he added.

Mr Goh noticed a huge wad of British pound notes in the man's right pocket. He also told Shin Min that the man had begged him to let him off, claiming he was very poor.

On Thursday evening, the police said in a news release that they had arrested a 46-year-old man for suspected involvement in housebreaking and theft at Frankel Street, with assistance from the public.

The release said that at 11.12am on Oct 27, a 30-year-old woman spotted an unknown man in her Frankel Street house. She shouted at the man who then fled with a handbag containing 820 British pounds. That was when Mr Goh stopped his car to help detain the suspect.

The suspect was charged on Oct 28 with housebreaking and theft, and may be fined and imprisoned for up to 10 years .

Commander of Bedok Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police Alvin Moh, commended Mr Goh for assisting in the arrest. He said: "This case illustrates the close partnership between the police and the community in fighting crime. Mr Goh had played an important role in the arrest and his selflessness and public-spiritedness are commendable."

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