SINGAPORE – The man accused of breaking into several landed properties on Polling Day had allegedly hopped from house to house by scaling walls and escaped by navigating the drain system.
Chinese national Wei Qingyou, 35, had allegedly broken into four homes, and The Straits Times understands he will face two more charges relating to other properties next Monday.
He has been charged with four counts of housebreaking and criminal trespass. He allegedly targeted the houses between 8.40pm and 9.10pm on Sept 1, which was Polling Day.
On Thursday morning, Wei was taken back to the crime scene, comprising landed estates beside Pasir Ris Park.
At around 10am, Wei arrived in a police car, clad in a white polo shirt and blue shorts. He shuffled out of the vehicle in transparent slippers, with both his hands and legs cuffed with black straps.
Flanked by police officers, Wei was taken to three houses in two hours. He spent five to 15 minutes in each property answering investigators’ questions in Mandarin on how he had allegedly committed the crimes.
At the first house, a two-storey property with a metal gate, Wei was heard telling officers how he scaled an approximately two-metre-high garden wall into the neighbouring house.
At the second house, he was noticed by four occupants – two foreign domestic workers, Ms Abaya Rizzalyn Estrella, 27, and Ms Chita Guzman Abaya, 56, and Mr Gan Kok Beng, 69, and Mr Goh Kim Hock, 70.
They were given the Public Spiritedness Award on Sept 4 for helping to stop Wei.
Mr Gan said they had grabbed Wei’s black haversack as he tried to escape via the window. The haversack contained cash and equipment, including a bolt cutter, a hacksaw and screwdrivers, which he had allegedly used for housebreaking.
A shirt and a mask recovered from the haversack were sent to the Health Sciences Authority for forensic DNA examination.
Even after this close shave, Wei allegedly climbed the perimeter wall and jumped into the garden of the adjacent house in Pasir Ris Road.
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He then purportedly walked through a drain system to reach two other houses at Pasir Ris Terrace, around 400m away.
At the fourth house, he allegedly climbed the fenced area, entered through the rear sliding door and stole $1,500.
No other losses were reported in the three other houses mentioned in Wei’s charge sheets.
Wei was also taken to a narrow drain in the area, where he indicated to police officers how he escaped by walking along the drain, jumping over a fence and heading to a forested area near Pasir Ris Park.
He allegedly had another backpack there, believed to contain cash. ST understands Wei retrieved this backpack before fleeing via the main road.
Within 19 hours of the first police report, Wei was arrested at Changi Airport while trying to leave Singapore.
The offence of housebreaking carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years’ jail per charge.
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