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Man Hid Wanted Friend in a Suitcase for an Hour During a Police Search

2021-08-04 , 11:09 am

Ahh, loyalty… Something that is always proclaimed during movies with men saying that they will be brothers for life, no matter what happens.

I’m sure many have thought about the loyalty of their friends as well, whether they would stay with you even when you go through hardships.

But honestly speaking, how far would you go to help out a childhood friend?

Well, apparently for 32-year-old Chia Wei Poh, he was willing to help his fugitive friend, 31-year-old Lim Wei Kiat, by paying for his bail, hiding him from authorities, and driving him around on his housebreaking heists.

Bailing Lim Out

It all started when Lim first broke into a house on the night of 12 September 2018. He was caught and released on court bail a month later with a sum of $15,000. Chia, wanting to help his friend, decided to stand bail for Lim.

Lim had to show up for a court hearing on 6 December 2018, but he ended up not going and the authorities immediately issued an arrest warrant for him. Unfortunately for Chia, this meant that $5,000 of the sum he paid for Lim’s bail was forfeited. He also had to attend a show cause hearing in place of Lim.

So much for bailing a friend out huh.

Giving Lim A Place To Stay

It seems that Lim went into hiding after he was released on bail, and it was only in April 2019 that he contacted Chia, telling him that he needed somewhere to stay for the time being. He explained that he had a newborn son and had to work in order to pay off his credit card debts.

In an attempt to secure a place to stay, he also reassured Chia that he would work as a deliveryman to pay him back for the $5,000 that was forfeited.

As he felt bad for Lim, Chia relented and allowed him and his family to stay at his rental flat for free even though he knew that Lim was a wanted man. To help him further, Chia also gave him a clerical job at his moving and transportation business.

Driving Lim Around For His Housebreaking Heists

Two months later, Lim told Chia that he was desperate for money, and would have to resort to breaking into more properties to get it.

You would think that Chia would have given up on Lim by now since he wasn’t going to change his behaviour even though he knew he was doing a crime, but Chia surprisingly didn’t. In fact, he joined in.

Chia drove Lim to meet up with some people who claimed that they knew the best houses to break into. They then gave Lim two addresses – a second-storey unit owned by an illegal bookmaker who allegedly had $300,000 in cash and a unit in Jalan Binchang which allegedly had watches with high values.

With the addresses in mind, all they needed next was a plan and to be prepared for it. The next day, the both of them went to Mustafa Centre to purchase equipment like a crowbar, screwdriver, and a balaclava facemask.

Lest you’re not aware, this is how a balaclava facemask looks like:

Image: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock.com

Classy, isn’t it?

Before heading to the addresses mentioned by Lim’s acquaintance, Chia drove Lim to V3 Club at Boat Quay on 24 June 2019 at around 3am. This was Lim’s previous workplace and he wanted to try his luck at stealing from them.

By scaling the air-conditioning compressors, he climbed into an unlocked window and used the crowbar to break into the club’s office. There was a cash register there, as well as a safe. Lim managed to get only $25 from the cash register as the safe was discovered to be empty.

With just $25, he decided to go down to the first floor of the club to see if he could get more money from the cash register there. However, he saw a bartender sleeping near the cash register, so he quickly got out and went back to Chia’s car. As they drove away, Lim threw the equipment he used out of the car.

Lim’s heist was discovered the next day by the bartender who was sleeping near the cash register after he watched CCTV footage.

As a result of the damages caused by Lim to its property, Chia had to pay $2,500 back to the club.

Hiding Lim In A Suitcase

As the authorities were made known of Lim’s activities, he was traced back to Chia’s residence, so they paid them a visit on 25 June 2019.

When the policemen arrived at the foot of their block, Chia and Lim spotted them and quickly devised a plan for Lim to escape.

Lim thought that it would be a good idea for him to tie bedsheets to the railing of the balcony and scale down the floors, just like what people do in movies, but this idea was rejected by Chia as he was afraid that Lim would lose his footing and fall to his death.

Is it just me or does this entire story sound like a Mr Bean movie?

Chia decided that his idea of stuffing Lim into a suitcase was much better, so that was what they went ahead with.

Okay, it’s indeed a Mr Bean movie.

To ensure that it didn’t look too obvious, Chia even placed some items on the suitcase, as if it hadn’t been used in a long while.

During this time when Chia was helping Lim to hide, the policemen were banging on their door, asking to be let in. Just before they broke the door down, Chia and his other housemate opened the door.

They immediately started looking around, and Chia initially told them that Lim was not there in the house. However, he caved after an hour and admitted that Lim was in the suitcase.

Since it had been so long since Lim was crammed into that small space of a suitcase, his legs had become numb and he could not walk even after being removed from it. The policemen then had to send him to Changi General Hospital for a week so that he could recover.

I wanna watch this movie so badly.

The Court Hearing

During Chia’s court hearing, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chong Kee En sought a minimum of an 18-month jail sentence and cited Chia’s involvement a few years back in breaking into the same club with Lim. He had already been sentenced to jail for two years back in 2014.

But of course, he also noted that Chia only acted as Lim’s chauffeur this time, and did not have any financial gain.

Chia’s lawyer, Anil Singh Sandhu, sought a jail term of 15 months instead. He said that Lim had begged for Chia’s help, and assured him that he would turn himself in once he managed to pay off his wife’s credit card debts and once his wife was able to start working again.

The debts were incurred in the first place to provide for his newborn son and to put some food on the table.

Chia also knew that if Lim were to be arrested, his wife and his son would become homeless with no source of income. Not bearing to break up a young family, he decided to help Lim.

Mr Singh also noted that Chia helped Lim because he did not want to see his friend’s marriage fall apart if he were to be sent to jail, and it was not to gain any profits, similar to what DPP Chong had considered.

At the end of the hearing, Chia was given a jail term of 17 months after he pleaded guilty to one charge of abetting Lim to commit housebreaking with the intention to steal, and one charge of harbouring Lim with the intention to hide him from legal punishment.

If you’re curious about Lim, he was sentenced on 17 July 2020 to a jail term of four years and six months. He was also given four strokes of the cane.

So the moral of the story here? Loyalty may be important, but you have to know when to draw the line as well.

Watch this video to the end and you’d understand that people only help when they’ve nothing to lose: