SG Complains

Man steals jewels worth $140k! (My Take On This Crime)

According to Straits Time:

• The thief had surveyed & make rapport with the employees of the jewellery shop a day before

• He returned the next day and asked to buy four rings worth a total of $141,300.

• Claiming he had to get money, he went to the lobby of the hotel, accompanied by the shop manager.

• It is unclear why the manager went out of the shop with the suspect.

• The man later doubled back to the shop, where he told employees there that he had paid for the jewels.

• The employees handed over the gems to him (without checking with manager who is missing?), and he walked out through the front doors.

• It was only later that the manager and staff realised the jewels had not been paid for.

• The suspect remains at large. The police said he was wearing a dark blue suit, was about 1.7m tall, and had a fair complexion.

- There is more than meets the eye for this case of day light robbery! Obviously the article seems to had left out certain aspect of the crime to mystify the readers or simply don’t want to speculate or accuse anyone for anything.

The press had to leave the investigating to the police or the public to guess what had really happened.

I do like to investigate certain things such as this but I have to declare that whatever I write here does not represent my view but just simple speculation and hold no grounds on the court of law unless proven otherwise…by the investigating officers….obviously.

I like to give some ideas on how to solve this case.

Things to do as usual

1. CCTV images to be sent out to police & updated in the police website.

2. Custom to record all out going tourist via time/date/CCTV images.
3. Interview the manager to find out if he is suspicious for being “missing” or “distracted” to allow the thief to successfully come back to take the jewellery.
4. Research into the background of the manager & employees to find out any one of them own large amount of debts or have relatives matching the thief descriptions.

My initial analysis may be the following.

1. The Manager is cooperating with the criminal(s) to be missing or deliberately “away” while the thief comes back to collect the loot.

2. There are 2 look alike thief probably a twins, one to distract the manager to collect his cash and another to come and collect the loot.
3. The thief is great at disappearance during collection of cash such as going to a toilet and escape to collect loot without the suspicion of the manager.

Things that you can look out for employees of jewellery shops

1. Anyone suspicious especially con man who are very friendly to everyone at first contact

2. Install more CCTV of higher quality that have better footage.
3. Never hand over any products without confirmation of transfer of money of any kind.
4. Send employee to attend courses to spot con man.
5. If it’s too good to be true, it’s usually is.
6. Always double confirm the cash is real via a Ultra Violet Light installed together with normal lights.
7. Be calm when a crime is in progress, think of the most important & valuable first…which is human life.
8. Don’t be a hero unless you can ensure the safety of everyone.
9. If you think the customer is being suspicious, be firm and reject the sale.
10. Never be lure out of the shop unless there is an emergency.
11. In an event of false emergency, lock everything before leaving the shop unattended if there is enough time.
12. Display signs that the shop is being monitored with high quality CCTV.
13. Always hire non-gamblers.

That’s all I can think of now but I myself had been a victim of phone scam and realized that the con man makes use of our most vulnerable desires, hopes, fear and greed to lure our money straight to their hands with “hypnotic” & “repetitive” words.

I believe these con man makes a great sales person…they can easily make tons of money just by teaching their selling techniques.

Signs of con man

1. Appear to be friendly, worthy of a good chat immediately at first contact.
2. Usually comes in pairs or more for collaboration however phone scam only need one.
3. Able to use your fear, greed, excitement, peer pressure and probably a good promise.
4. Sometimes mix some truth into lies…to make it more real.
5. Can visit multiple times over a long period to complete the scam.

Types of Scam/Robbery I can think of

1. Distraction & Snatch Robbery using anything from Chili Sauce to Bird Shit to distract victims.

2. Tech Robber using bluetooth hack into other people’s mobile phone and call 1900 or donation numbers or subscriptions.
3. Phone Scam using fake kidnapping as reason for your parents to deposit money into their bank account directly via ATM Fund Transfer without you knowing it’s fake kidnapping.
4. Phone Scam by luring you into a job/purchase/free stuff/Promotion/Lucky Draw and request you to put money or visit their location for the 2 hour long seminar which they will employ hard sell tactics & peer pressure to sign long term contracts at high prices.
5. MLM which name is widely recognized as Multi Level Marketing that employ similar tricks to make the victims sign contracts and even work for them selling cheap stuff thinking that they will make it big in the future without knowing the terms and condition will force their victims into slavery instead.

That’s all I can think of for now, there are many others that you can find online….