Young man caught on CCTV stealing resident’s slippers

SINGAPORE: A woman took to Facebook to post a video of her slippers being stolen, expressing her surprise that, in spite of the size of her CCTV camera, a young man still had the audacity to take something that did not belong to him.

Writing in a Tuesday (Sep 30) post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook group page that some people don’t seem to use their brains these days, the post author asked if anyone knows the young man, and if they do, to please tag him.

“Let him know he’s caught and a police report has been filed,” she added.

The 18-second video she posted, which was timestamped from earlier that day, showed a young man who looked to be in his teens or maybe in the early twenties. The bespectacled youth was decently dressed in a red and navy blue shirt and blue shorts, with white socks and shoes.

At first, it seems that he is looking around to see if anyone is nearby and goes around the corner of the hallway. Seeing no one, he bends down in front of the flat’s main door to pick up the slippers, before going back quickly in the direction he came from.

In the comments, members of the group expressed surprise that anyone would take a pair of slippers that did not seem new at all, with one going to the extent of writing that they would bring the young man bad luck.

What the law says

Under Section 378 of Singapore’s Penal Code, theft is an offence that could land a person in jail for as long as three years or be slapped with a fine, although this depends on factors such as the value of the items stolen, the number of prior offences a person has, and whether there was trespass involved.

Unfortunately, stealing shoes from outside an HDB flat is not uncommon, however. Earlier this year, a Grab delivery rider was also caught on camera shortly past 4 a.m. taking a pair of Adidas slippers from a shoe rack in the corridor, although he put them back a little while later.

Upon seeing the incident on CCTV footage, the resident messaged the Grab rider to confront them. When the resident told him that she knew he had taken the slippers, however, momentarily, he claimed that he just wanted to check if they had an anti-slip base.

The Independent Singapore has reached out to the post author for further comments or updates. /TISG

Read also: Grab rider caught on camera taking slippers; claims he was ‘just checking’