Bag and beers: Wheelchair-bound man caught stealing thrice from Teck Whye coffeeshop

A coffee shop in Teck Whye has had to deal with an unwelcome visitor in the last two months, one who has not just reportedly stolen an employee's personal belongings but also tried to nick bottles of beer from the premises.

A 25-year-old employee of a Western stall told Shin Min Daily News that he only noticed the 'visitor' - a wheelchair-bound middle-aged man - appear at the coffee shop last month. 

"That uncle is bald, sometimes he'll push himself into the coffee shop and ask the stall owners for the price of their food, but he'll say he forgot to bring money and needs to go home first," said the employee. 

He also shared that the incident occurred on Sept 13 at about 2am where the man allegedly stole a female colleague's bag. 

"During that time, [the female colleague] and another employee from the noodle stall were present, both of them were packing up for the day. 

"Her bag was left on the table directly in front of the stall, which was near the gate. The gate was left half-open, which was why he had the opportunity to steal it," the Western stall employee surmised. 

He added that the woman is a Malaysian who travels from Johor Bahru to Singapore for work every day.

Her bag contained her passport, two ATM cards, her work permit, about $140 in cash, her motorbike keys and license, reported 8world.

Without these items, the woman was reportedly unable to return home that night. She had to stay at a friend's house, and has since reapplied for her documents. 

"She was panicking, and she immediately called our manager, who checked the CCTV footage and realised that the uncle wheeled himself into the coffee shop to steal her bag, so we called the police." 

Returned to steal beer 

Despite already being caught once on CCTV, the thief returned to the crime scene to steal again on Oct 4. 

"The second time, he visited the coffee shop in the afternoon while the manager was busy serving customers. He suddenly heard a noise coming from the area where we store the beers, and spotted the uncle holding a few bottles." 

When the manager asked him to hand over the drinks, the wheelchair-bound man pretended to enquire about the price of the beverage. 

"The next day he came back and tried to do the same thing. He entered from the back door and wanted to take away two bottles of beer. My manager caught him again, she was so angry that she called the police." 

To prevent the same thing from happening a third time, the bottles of beer have since been moved next to the drink stall. 

In response to Shin Min's queries, the police confirmed that they received two reports about the middle-aged man and are currently investigating. 

READ ALSO: Man covers head with plastic bag, breaks into Tiong Bahru coffee shop to steal cash registers

claudiatan@asiaone.com