STRANGE noises coming from below a manhole cover puzzled some passers-by at a quiet stretch off Serangoon Road on Monday night.

When they went to check, they heard a voice pleading with them to call for help.

But none of them dared to open the manhole as they had no idea who was inside.

By the time the police arrived, at about 10.30pm, about 10 people had gathered around the manhole cover just outside a motor workshop at Beng Wan Road.

A woman passing by earlier had heard the man's cries for help and called the police.

With the man's rescue emerged a tale of an alleged botched burglary and an even more botched getaway.

It seems the trapped man, 56, had tried to steal some laptops from a nearby primary school, but instead triggered an alarm.

In his bid to flee, he went into a drain and ended up trapped for about 24 hours.

The manhole he was rescued from is about 100m from the perimeter fence of Bendemeer Primary, where he allegedly committed his crime.

ASKED FOR POLICE

One of the bystanders, the manager of an Indian restaurant a few doors from the manhole, said the man, while in the manhole, pleaded with them in a mixture of English and Malay to call the police.

The manager, who did not want to be named, said: 'We were scared. We didn't dare open the covers.'

The first two police officers to arrive used a hook from his eatery to pull open the manhole covers.

They saw a man crouching inside the dark manhole, which was about half a metre deep.

The restaurant manager said everyone was surprised to see the man looking so dirty.

The policemen had to pour water over him to clean him up.

The woman who had called the police did not stay behind to find out who had been inside the manhole.

Mr Lai Tian Yu, 22, said he was walking by when he saw the policemen 'talking to the manhole'.

'It was a strange sight,' he said, as the manhole covers were still on.

Civil defence personnel who arrived in a Red Rhino pulled the man out.

Mr Lai said the man looked dishevelled and dazed. By then, more police cars had arrived.

The man, who had curly hair, sat on the ground next to the manhole, looking tired as the police questioned him for 20minutes.

Mr Lai and the restaurant manager said they heard the man tell the police that he tried to steal some laptops from Bendemeer Primary.

He apparently lost track of time while trapped inside and told the police that he had been in there for two days.

Said Mr Lai: 'The man was not very coherent. He said he tried to escape through the drain, but got stuck in there, and that he was in there for two days.'

Mr Lai, who lives at nearby Block48, said he recalled seeing police cars at the school on Sunday night.

'That's when I realised the two incidents could be related,' he said.

The school's principal could not be contacted yesterday.

The New Paper understands that the man tripped the school's alarm on Sunday at about 9.45pm when he tried to break into its IT laboratory

FLED SCHOOL

When the school's operations manager went to check, the man fled then got stuck in the drain.

It is not known whether he had entered the drain from inside or outside the school compound.

He was later placed on a stretcher and handcuffed before he was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in an ambulance.

Police spokesman Stanley Norbert said they received a call at about 10.25pm on Monday informing them a man was stuck in the drain leading to a manhole.

He said the man is suspected of committing a housebreaking offence and that investigations are ongoing.

This story was first published in The New Paper on 13 August 2008.