$50k daylight robbery

April 10, 2008
$50k daylight robbery Girl, 3, and maid held captive in victim's car
Robbers told maid that she and child would be killed if police were called
By Sujin Thomas and Lim Wei Chean
ORDEAL: One of the robbers went with the victim to withdraw the cash at this POSB branch in Hougang Central while his accomplice waited in her BMW in a nearby carpark with her grandchild and maid. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM WHEN a woman in her 60s walked into a POSB branch in Hougang Central on Tuesday afternoon to withdraw $50,000, the staff there did not turn a hair. They thought she was just a regular customer making a withdrawal. What they did not know: She was taking out the cash at the behest of a man armed with a knife. A spokesman for DBS, of which POSB is a part, told The Straits Times: 'We knew what had happened only when the police came asking for closed-circuit TV tapes to assist in their investigations.' After thewoman got the money from the bank in Block 805, she handed it to the robber, who then fled. Her ordeal had begun about an hour earlier, at 12.30pm, when a man with a knife confronted her in the driveway of her home in Chiltern Drive, off Braddell Road. Shouting for help Hougang resident Diana Chia (below with her son, Justin), who saw the maid and child locked in the car: ... more The police said he then got into the rear seat of her BMW, along with her three-year-old granddaughter and Filipino maid, and ordered her to drive. After picking up his accomplice along the way, they made their way to Hougang Central, where the woman and one of the men alighted outside the bank, Lianhe Wanbao reported. The other man then drove the car to the ground level of a nearby multi-storey carpark, with the child and maid still inside. He told the maid he would kill her and the child if she called the police. An hour later, he locked them in the car and went to meet his accomplice who had received the money - but not before winding down the car's window by about 8cm to let air into the car. The maid and child could not get out because of the child-safety lock. The maid shouted for help, attracting the attention of a passing rag-and-bone man. He did not understand English, so he called out to resident Diana Chia, 35, of Block 850, who was going to her car to pick her son up from school. The maid's armed-robbery story scared Ms Chia. She turned to her neighbour Ting Ming Sheng, 45, who had just driven into the carpark. She asked him to help and left to pick up her son. Mr Ting called the police, who arrived shortly. When Ms Chia returned about 20 minutes later, she slipped packets of milk, bread and biscuits through the car window to the duo. When the victim learnt where her maid and granddaughter were after the robber fled with her money, she asked her husband to take a spare key there. At the family's bungalow last night, The Straits Times spoke to one of the four maids working there. She said the maid involved had been told by her boss not to speak to the press. She added that the maid had settled back into her chores and did not seem traumatised. The police yesterday released descriptions of the two men: One is between 30 and 40 years old, slim and tanned, and about 1.7m tall. He was wearing a black jacket, dark trousers and a navy-blue baseball cap. The other is between 40 and 50. He was last seen in a black-and-white striped shirt and dark trousers. Those with information may call the police on 1800-255-0000.