TODAY20: 'It would take around 600 curry puffs to get the money back': Yishun theft victims (June 14, 2019)

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WHAT HAPPENED

• TODAY interviewed a couple whose hawker stall in Yishun was broken into by teenagers. They had lost over S$1,000, which they had saved up to buy equipment to make curry puffs
• The money was stolen just a day before they were due to buy the equipment
• It took them another four months to save up the money needed 

WHAT NEXT

• Following the publication of the article, which drew strong reactions from Singaporeans on social media, many customers from far and wide turned up at the stall to buy their curry puffs
• One customer even gave the couple S$300, hoping it could go some way to support their three children, who are aged four, 10 and 13.

SINGAPORE — The thieves struck just two weeks after Madam Kalsom Kamis, 34, and her husband opened up their new curry puff stall at Yishun Park Hawker Centre.

She had been waking up at 5am every day to make the curry puffs by hand and open up the stall, carefully putting aside money to buy equipment to reduce the intensive labour involved in making the savoury pastries.

On July 17, last year, just a day before she was due to buy the equipment, her husband Zaidi Zainal, 39, arrived at the stall to find all their savings gone. It was more than S$1,000 that had been stored in the cash register.

Speaking at the stall on Friday (June 14), Mdm Kalsom told TODAY: “I cried a lot. I flatten the dough with my hands and make them into balls with my hands every single day. It would take around 600 curry puffs to get the money back.”

The couple decided to raise the prices for each curry puff from S$1.20 to S$1.50 after the incident, to earn back the stolen money. To make matters worse, they suffered another — smaller — theft from the stall, of S$50, earlier this year.

Her husband said that it had been particularly tough on his wife because she had to do everything by hand, without the aid of equipment such as dough flatteners and mixers.

He said: “We had only started business for two weeks when this incident happened. She needs to prepare the curry puffs three hours (before we open for business).”

Last July, six youths devised a plan to get quick cash, with one of them climbing a wall at midnight and stealing the cash from the stall, while the others kept a lookout.

One of the youths, a 17-year-old, was sentenced to two years’ probation on Friday. He pleaded guilty to one count each of theft in dwelling in relation to the offence. He also pleaded guilty to unrelated offences.

He was ordered to perform 180 hours of community service and spend a year at Singapore Boys’ Hostel, a juvenile probation institution. His father posted a bond of $5,000 to ensure his good behaviour.

Mdm Kalsom said that she hopes the teenager will learn from his mistake and change his ways. “His parents should be more strict on him,” she said.

A mother of three children, aged four, 10 and 13, Mdm Kalsom prepares the curry puffs in the morning while Mr Zaidi takes care of their children.

She said: “My husband will take care of the kids until the oldest one comes home from school. Then he will join me in the afternoon until we close around 7pm.”

Thankfully, the duo managed to save up enough money to buy the equipment four months after the S$1,000 was taken.

She said: “We plan on installing security cameras and security bars around the shop.”