64-year-old man accused of trying to snatch handbag of woman at Balestier Road bus stop
A 64-year-old man was charged with snatch theft after allegedly trying to snatch the handbag of an elderly woman at a bus stop along Balestier Road.
He was arrested after being caught on CCTV, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Source: Google Maps
Man unsuccessful in snatching handbag in Balestier
In a news release on Sunday (19 July), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said it was alerted to the incident at about 8.40pm last Thursday (16 July).
A 72-year-old woman was at a bus stop along Balestier Road when an unknown man attempted to snatch her handbag.
But he was unsuccessful and fled the scene empty-handed.
Man arrested after 2 days, charged with snatch theft
Officers from Tanglin Police Division conducted follow-up investigations and viewed of images from CCTV and police cameras.
They managed to identify the man and arrested him about two days later, on 18 July.
He was charged in court on Monday (20 July) for the offence of snatch theft under Section 356 of the Penal Code 1871.
If convicted, he faces between one and seven years in prison, as well as caning.
Man allegedly tried to snatch handbag worth S$500
According to a charge sheet seen by Shin Min, the incident took place at about 8.15pm that night.
The man named Wang Dejin (transliterated from Mandarin), allegedly tried to pull off a Coach handbag with S$500, which was slung over the elderly woman’s right shoulder.
Source: Henry Kobutra on Unsplash. Photo for illustration purposes only.
The bag contained S$586 in cash, a power bank, bank cards, a Chinese identity card, and a Long-Term Visit Pass.
Police find suspect on shop’s CCTV footage
Hassan, a 26-year-old employee of a hardware store in the vicinity, told reporters from the Chinese daily that the police had visited his shop to check its CCTV footage.
They spent an hour looking through the footage without finding anything, he said.
The next day, the officers returned a finally found a clip of the suspect fleeing the scene.
He was wearing white short-sleeved top, black berms and a black baseball cap, and appeared to be in a hurry.
Hassan said there area usually has a lot of foot traffic here, with people constantly getting on and off buses, but he did not hear any commotion at the time.
According to the CCTV footage, the suspect allegedly struck despite the area with people and an Indian restaurant nearby packed.
Also read: 2 Men Suspected Of Involvement In Separate Snatch Theft Cases In Yishun, Arrested By Police
2 Men Suspected Of Involvement In Separate Snatch Theft Cases In Yishun, Arrested By Police
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps and Henry Kobutra on Unsplash. Photo on the right for illustration purposes only.
