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ALL it took for three women to break into a Tampines Central flat and make off with $6,000 in cash and $30,000 worth of valuables was a call to the locksmith.
Chino Lee Ji Jing, 28, rang one up, claiming she was locked out of her house. The locksmith came to cut the lock open for her.
After he left, Lee and her accomplice Shelite Teo Riu Min, 25, went in and looted the flat of jewellery, designer handbags, accessories and cash worth a total of $36,000. A third woman – Wee Soo Yen, 35 – waited in her car downstairs.
The flat belonged to Lee’s nephew.
Yesterday, Wee – the last among the trio to be dealt with – was jailed a total of 21/2 years for housebreaking, theft and credit card offences. Teo was sentenced to a year last August and Lee to three years last October.
A district court heard that last June, the unemployed trio needed money to settle their gambling debts. Lee, also known as Siew Ling, told the others that her nephew was getting married and there was bound to be jewellery in his house.
After checking that no one was in the flat on the morning of June 17, the trio called a locksmith. Wee stayed in her car while Lee and Teo went up to the flat to ask the locksmith to drill a hole in the padlock of the front door. They paid him $70.
The trio sold some of their loot to shops in Tampines Central and Sim Lim Square. The court was not told how they were caught.
A year earlier, Wee and Lee also stole credit cards with the help of Robin Tan Chun Guan, 24, and used these to buy watches and gold jewellery. Tan, who has pleaded guilty, will be sentenced next week.
Locksmiths told The Straits Times that they would usually check if a client asking them to open a locked front door is the rightful owner by checking the address on his or her identity card.
Mr Dennis Yeo, 57, a locksmith for 40 years, said: “If he says it’s his uncle’s house or girlfriend’s apartment, I will turn him down. If his wallet is inside the house, then I get him to agree to show me his identity card once I get the door open or I will call the police.”
Locksmith Thomas Leong, 40, takes similar precautions. He is especially wary of requests to open locked doors in rental premises.
“Usually, I will ask for the landlord to confirm that my client is the tenant,” said the locksmith of 15 years.
But if a family is stranded outside a locked house with children, few locksmiths ask for proof of ownership. Said Mr Yeo: “People don’t break into houses with children and wife in tow.”
Checking with neighbours is also an option but this has to be done discreetly so as not to offend an honest client, said locksmith Bernard Chee.
“My style would be to make noise so neighbours would come out of their units and if they know the client, then I am confident he is the owner,” said the 42-year-old.
Housebreaking and related crimes rose from 898 cases in 2008 to 1,026 last year.
Police said this spike was mainly due to more break-ins in HDB estates, where many flats have poor quality locks that can easily be cut open.
Such cases went up from 279 to 389 in that period.
