SINGAPORE — Fresh from allegedly stealing about S$500,000 in cash from the safe of a fruit wholesaler in Pasir Panjang, two men hopped into a taxi and went back to their hotel with the ill-gotten gains.

But the ride would come back to bite the two when the police seized on it as a lead and tracked them down to Marina Bay Sands (MBS), where they were staying, 16 hours after the crime was reported.

The duo, who hold Vietnamese passports, will be charged in court today for the offence of housebreaking and theft by night with common intention.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Loh Yong Soon, co-owner of Loh Ee Seng Trading at Pasir Panjang wholesale centre, arrived at the shop to find an A4-sized hole on his safe, debris strewn on the floor and about S$500,000 missing.

He and his brother Thomas Loh Yong Kiat did not usually keep such large sums in the safe, but had been putting away money there since December as they were intending to pay their suppliers in cash for the Chinese New Year period and bonuses to their staff. They filed a police report at around 7am that day.

Sharing the details of the investigation at a media conference today (Jan 6), the police said that upon investigation, it was found that the suspects had allegedly entered the shop premises by forcing open a ventilator opening on the rooftop of the building.

While questioning taxi companies as part of their investigation, the officers from Clementi Police Division found that one taxi driver had picked up two individuals at West Coast Highway in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and dropped them both at MBS.

The two men, aged 23 and 35, were arrested around 10.30pm that same day at MBS. From their hotel room, the police seized S$433,000 in cash and about S$10,000 worth of luxury goods, which are believed to have been purchased using the stolen monies.

Clementi Police Division commander Gerald Lim said the sum was the largest recovered by the division in two years.

The two men had entered Singapore on New Year’s Day with a social visit pass. Only the younger one had visited the Republic before. They were booked for a stay at MBS from Jan 2 to 8. Speaking at the media conference, Assistant Commissioner of Police Lim said he was “baffled” as to how the suspects managed to cut open the safe. No tools that could have been used to cut open the safe have been recovered so far.

The Loh brothers, who took over the business from their father, said at the media conference that only they knew about the money in the safe. The shop has a closed-circuit television camera, but it was not working at the time.

“When my brother saw the safe, he was really shocked,” said Mr Thomas Loh, the younger of the two.

Their 74-year-old father, the founder of the company, took the news the hardest. “He was really sad,” he said, adding that all three of them had thought they would not recover the lost money.

The brothers plan to improve the security of their shop. “And we’ll definitely keep our money in the bank from now on,” said Mr Thomas Loh with a grin.

The suspects do not have any criminal record in Singapore, but the police are working with the Vietnamese authorities to get more information. If convicted, the suspects could be jailed up to 14 years.