Gym assistant arrested for stealing luxury watches worth more than $170,000 from a customers’ lockers

SINGAPORE: Gym goers need to be more vigilant of their belongings to prevent valuables from getting stolen. Recently, a gym assistant took the master key to open the lockers of some customers, stealing luxury watches–a Rolex and Patek Philippe–amounting to more than $170,000. He carried-out his criminal acts for more than a month,

Finally caught, the 27-year-old suspect was handed a two months jail sentencing. The suspect, a student at the time of the incident, was working as a part-time gym assistant.

In January 2023, the suspect stole a Rolex watch worth $13,300 from a customer’s locker, and repeated the crime again in February 2023 whene he stole a Patek Philippe watch worth $160,000. 

One of the victims, a 35-year-old, complained that he went to the gym and put his Patek Philippe watch along with his personal belongings into a locker and locked it. When he returned, he was shocked to find that his watch was missing and reported the incident to the police the same day. 

Case details revealed that the suspect had access to the master key of all the lockers, which allowed him to open them. However, investigations did not specify how he found out that the lockers contained valuable items.

The police arrested the suspect at his home and recovered the stolen watches. 

During sentencing, the judge stated that the suspect betrayed the trust of the customers. Considering it was his first offence and his willingness to plead guilty, the judge sentenced him to two months imprisonment. 

In similar news regarding employees stealing from their workplace, there was a report where a warehouse assistant embezzled 91 mobile phones and watches, amounting to more than $64,000, within a year. The suspect used the money from this crime for personal purposes, including daily food, football betting, offerings to Buddha statues, and buying amulets.

The 48-year-old suspect was charged with breach of trust and pleaded guilty. Read more about the news article here.