An odd-job worker with a penchant for singing birds was jailed for a month on Wednesday for stealing two of them. Rosman Ridawi, 48, committed the first offence at 11am on Nov 3. He was about to take down a cage with a Jambul bird in it hanging along the common corridor of a block of flats in Bukit Batok, when its owner saw him.
Rosman ran off with the cage and the bird with Mr Ang Ghim Hin, 61, a canteen operator, in pursuit. During the chase, the thief dropped the cage and the bird, valued at $300.
Rosman managed to escape but was up to no good barely an hour later. He heard another Jambul bird singing from a nearby block of flats and went to check it out. It was in a cage hanging in the balcony of the kitchen of a ground floor flat.
It was rather high so Rosman searched the rubbish centre and found a chair and a bamboo pole with a hook at one end. With these, he was able to fish out the cage and the bird. The bird was valued at $900. Both items were recovered from his home.
On Dec 6, he was found to be in possession of a stolen bicycle.
He pleaded guilty to committing two counts of theft and to the charge of fraudulent possession of stolen property.
