Youths steal S$1,064 from Yishun curry puff stall, pose as policemen

SINGAPORE — Six youths hatched a plot to get quick money, with one of them climbing into stalls in a hawker centre about midnight and stealing cash while the others kept a lookout.

They stole about S$1,000 from a curry puff stall at Yishun Park Hawker Centre, but among the lookouts, only Ng Qiang Qing waited for his friend to finish the deed. They then distributed the stolen money among themselves, getting about S$150 each.

On Friday (June 14), Ng, who turned 17 on Thursday, was sentenced to two years’ probation for his actions. He pleaded guilty to one count each of theft in dwelling, rioting and abetting the impersonation of a public servant.

He was also 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 S$5,000 to ensure his good behaviour.

Besides the three charges he admitted to, five other charges of theft were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that the hawker theft occurred on July 17, 2018, when Ng met up with his five other youths, aged between 15 and 17, at the hawker centre at about midnight.

One of them used a chair to climb over a wall and get into Mr Zaidi Zainal’s curry puff stall. There, he used the key that Mr Zaidi had left inserted in the keyhole of the cash register box to open it, and took S$1,064 in cash.

When he climbed out of the stall, only Ng was still waiting. The other four youths had left.

Court documents showed that they also stole cash, ranging from S$10 to S$200, from three other stalls

Mr Zaidi called the police later that day, saying that he realised all the money in his cash box — where he kept his daily earnings — was missing when he opened the stall at 9am.

In a separate incident, the court heard that late on the night of April 30 this year, Ng got into a group fight at Yishun Avenue 11.

It started when his friend began arguing with another group of youths playing football at the void deck of a block of flats, after someone in the group commented on his walking gait.

Later, feeling unhappy, Ng’s friend decided to return to confront the group. Ng joined him and three other youths, and began fighting with the other group, punching and kicking each other.

Ng was involved in another offence just a few hours later at about 6.15am on May 1 this year.

He was walking along Sentosa Boardwalk with three other friends when he saw two Bangladeshi foreign construction workers sleeping on a bench. Ng then suggested to his friends that they approach them.

When the workers woke up, one of Ng’s friends, Muhammad Isnalli David, told them they were not allowed to sleep there.

The 16-year-old then took out his identity card, claimed to be a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and demanded they show him their work permits and give him their wallets.

One of the workers took out his wallet to get his permit. Isnalli then snatched the wallet and took S$379 from it.

When the other worker refused to hand over his wallet, Ng and Muhammad Salman Mohd Mehmood, 16, pretended to make phone calls to request for backup to lend credibility to Isnalli’s claim to be a CID officer.

Ng’s actions, in pretending to make the back-up call, amounted to abetting the impersonation of a public servant — in this case, a police officer.

Later, someone called the police on behalf of the workers, saying the youths had taken their money and ran off in the direction of Resorts World Sentosa. He added that Isnalli was not wearing a shirt.