2 men nabbed for breaking into shop and stealing $500,000

Climbing in through a rooftop ventilator, two Vietnamese men sneaked into a fruit wholesale shop at Pasir Panjang in the wee hours of Tuesday and made off with about half a million in cash.

In less than a day, they splashed some of the stolen cash on several luxury goods, including a pair of Gucci shoes and a Louis Vuitton belt.

But their shopping spree ended abruptly that night, after police officers sprung onto the pair, aged 23 and 35, at a public area in Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

At a press conference yesterday afternoon, the police said they arrested the suspects at 10.30pm, some 16 hours after the owners discovered the break-in.

About $433,000 in cash and some luxury goods were recovered from a hotel room at MBS, which the suspects had been staying in since Saturday.

To establish their identities, police officers acted on a lead from a taxi driver, who recalled picking up the pair along West Coast Highway on Tuesday morning.

Earlier that day at Loh Ee Seng Trading, they forced open the ventilator and cut open the shop's safe containing the cash using a set of tools, according to preliminary findings.

The sum of $500,000 is the largest amount of cash involved in a housebreaking case over the past two years.

The suspects will be charged today with housebreaking and theft by night. If convicted, they may face a jail term of up to 14 years.

Get MyPaper for more stories.