Shocking: A bank in S’pore was robbed & over 10 police cars were activated

If you’re just like me who thinks that no one in Singapore would dare to commit robbery and burglary in Singapore, you’ll be just as surprised as me when this latest piece of news shocked the country.

This morning, at around 11:25 a.m., a Caucasian man wearing a cap, a grey hoodie and mustard pants allegedly robbed the Standard Chartered Bank branch in Holland Village. According to various media outlets (here and here), eyewitnesses saw over ten police cars in the area, and the scene was cordoned off.

The stretch of shops is well-known to have a number of banks, with a StarBucks outlet nearby. Despite the robbery, there was no commotion in the area except for the arrival of police officers, both uniformed and plainclothes ones, conducting interviews and investigations.

According to The Straits Times, someone also saw police officers in bulletproof vests and shields: Definitely something that we don’t see daily.

Shin Min Daily News (新明日报) managed to scoop more details about the robbery. Apparently, the man was alone when he entered the bank. He then passed a slip of note to a bank employee, indicating his desire to rob the bank. It is still unknown what was written on the note, but for the safety of the public, the bank officer passed a stack of money to him. The robber then ran away immediately—and it all took merely a few minutes.

All in, there was no weapon involved—or at least any visible weapon involved.

The bank employees, the customers the public are safe, and the bank made a police report immediately. It would be temporarily closed for investigations.

The police are conducting a manhunt for the robber, and have been interviewing people around the area and also approaching landed houses nearby. Some of them were also spotted checking the dustbins as well.

As of now, police investigations are still ongoing.

Robberies are extremely rare in Singapore: in the last twelve years, only four other robberies were reported. One of them was reported in 2008 at a UOB branch at City Plaza, when the robber was pinned down by the security guard.

The last time a robber was able to get away with cash (about $37,000) was in December 2004: a man grabbed a customer at knifepoint in a relatively empty POSBank branch at Block 502 West Coast and demanded the bank tellers to place money into a plastic bag. It then created quite a hoo-ha as there was no security guard in the branch guarding it.

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com