A 29-year-old man was arrested within 12 hours after a hotel room on Singapore’s Beach Road was allegedly broken into, with about S$150 in cash reported stolen.
Police said they were alerted at around 7.30am on Sept. 20 to a case of housebreaking and theft at a hotel along Beach Road. Officers from the Central Police Division subsequently used ground enquiries and closed-circuit television footage to identify the suspect.
The man was arrested on the evening of Sept. 20, less than 12 hours after police received the report.
He is due to be charged in court on Sept. 22 with housebreaking and theft under Section 451 of Singapore’s Penal Code 1871. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine.
Police have advised hotel guests to take precautions, including ensuring that room doors, windows and balcony doors are properly closed and locked, even when they are inside the room.
Guests are also encouraged to keep cash, identity documents and other valuables in the hotel safe or another secure location, and to immediately alert hotel staff and police if they notice suspicious people or activity.
The swift arrest means the case moved from the reported break-in to the identification and detention of a suspect within the same day. The next development will come when the accused appears in court to face the charge.
