Cops foil foreign syndicate's shoplifting spree
Four Vietnamese allegedly stole about 870 items
Four Vietnamese members of a syndicate would line small bags with aluminium foil before allegedly using them to steal items from retail outlets islandwide.
The police said the foil prevented store sensors from going off.
In all, they allegedly stole 868 items, including 529 Beauty Light bras, worth more than $26,000.
The police said this is believed to be one of the largest shoplifting cases in Singapore recently.
Yesterday, the police held a press conference detailing how the syndicate worked and how the suspects were nabbed.
Assistant Commissioner of Police and Commander of Bedok Police Division Tan Tin Wee told the media they had arrested two men and two women aged between 26 and 31, on Sunday evening.
AC Tan said preliminary investigations indicated they belonged to a foreign crime syndicate and had struck multiple retail outlets across the country.
He added: "This is possibly the biggest shop theft case we've had in a while in terms of the value and volume of items stolen."
The police said there might be more unrecovered items.
The Beauty Light bras are sold at Uniqlo.
The other stolen items included shirts, spectacles, bags, underwear and parkas.
They belonged to brands such as Uniqlo and Louis Vuitton.
The New Paper understands that a Uniqlo store manager at Downtown East in Pasir Ris alerted the police last Friday.
About 20 officers from Bedok Police Division were activated.
ARRESTED WITHIN A DAY
After viewing 10 hours of closed circuit television footage, they identified the suspects and arrested them in a hotel in Chin Swee Road within 24 hours.
Head of investigation at the Bedok Police Division, Superintendent K. Vasanthan, told TNP the suspects might have been planning to smuggle the items back to Vietnam and sell them there.
The four suspects will be charged in court today with theft in dwelling.
If convicted, they can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.
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