38-year-old female Chinese national has been arrested after allegedly stealing a bracelet from a shop in Changi Airport.
The alleged offence was committed at the Swarovski outlet in the departure transit area of Terminal 3, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a news release on Monday (12 Oct).
Source: Google Maps
On 26 Sept, a retail assistant at Swarovski found that a bracelet worth S$255.95 was missing from a display shelf.
A woman was seen on CCTV footage taking the bracelet from the shelf.
She then allegedly left the shop without making payment.
SPF was alerted at about 1.15am that morning, it said.
Officers from the Airport Police Division managed to identify the woman after conducting ground enquiries and viewing the CCTV images.
She was then arrested before she could depart from Singapore.
The bracelet was found in her possession and recovered.
Source: Singapore Police Force
On Tuesday (13 Oct), the woman will be charged in court with the offence of theft in dwelling.
Under Section 380 of the Penal Code 1871, she may be jailed for up to seven years and/or fined.
SPF takes “a serious view” of shop theft cases, it said.
SPF said that CCTV cameras with facial recognition technology are now prevalent at retail outlets, allowing better detection of shoplifters on the premises.
This leads to arrests of the offenders as the retailers are “increasingly leveraging” such footage in their police reports.
Even when the shoplifter manages to evade detection while carrying out the offence, or if they cannot be immediately apprehended, this serves as a “significant deterrent”, SPF noted, adding:
CCTV evidence greatly increases the likelihood of their eventual identification, and they will face the full brunt of the law.
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Featured image adapted from Singapore Police Force and Google Maps.