Staff Had Said ‘No Money’ When Boon Lay MRT Robber Asked for It

Under normal circumstances, bank robberies would have been objects of fear, terrifying even.

After all, you’re faced with a life-threatening dilemma of either losing your life or your job, and while many would obviously go for the latter, some would be hard-pressed to escape without some form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

So really, it’s pretty much a lose-lose situation here.

But then, every so often, we get a case that just seems to bend away from the usual stereotype. Like this one.

On 28 July, a ValueMax pawnshop outside Boon Lay MRT station went under attack as a “robber” tried to get some extra cash for his needs, whatever they are.

What ensued, however, was, more of a scene out of Brooklyn 99 as the male employee who faced off against him described the robber as “behaving like a kid playing some pretence game”.

Way to hurt a dude’s future aspirations, man.

What happened?

On Saturday (28 July) evening, a man wearing a pink turban, blue jacket and long brown pants turned up at the aforementioned ValueMax outlet armed with a knife and what seemed to be a replica gun, and reportedly told the counter staff member:

“Give me money! Money!”

Next, a scene from a Mr Bean episode

Shielded by a security metal grille and laminated tampered glass, the staff member just replied: “No money.”

The robber then seemed to be “at a loss of what to do (before) he threatened that he has a bomb. He was very, very nervous, so he just fled (empty-handed),” said ValueMax executive director Yeah Lee Ching.

But before leaving, the robber made sure to leave behind his parting gift, which according to Ms Yeah was “obviously fake”.

Hey, give the dude some credit; he put in effort to craft the device after all.

Probably, I don’t know; never met the dude.

If you do, please contact the police; here’s an image of how he looked like:

Nevertheless, the shop’s staff complied by whipping the object out of the window, and calling the cops.

Also, nobody’s hurt.

Yay.

Batman

As a result of the incident, Ms Yeah lauded her staff member as “calm, quick-thinking and brave”, and added that he actually tried to give chase to the robber, but lost track of the suspect.

And the next day, he was back at work, unaffected by the incident which he described as “quite comical”.

In fact, he reportedly wondered why the police even blocked off the area, seeing how it was just a “small issue”.

With the sighting of a “Batman” in Jurong West St 81, which is rather close to the MRT station, I won’t be surprised if that’s Bruce Wayne there.

Investigations

But the important question remains unanswered.

Was the bomb really what it was, or just what we think it was, or never was what it was?

Well, according to the police, the answer’s not one of the above. Rather…

It’s more than meets the eye.

After investigations, police established that the robber’s “explosive device” really contained only “some electrical components”, and later classified the case under Section 4(A) of the Arms Offences Act.

Incidentally, anyone found guilty of using arms (or attempting) while committing or trying to commit an offence could face the death penalty if convicted, whether he meant to cause physical injury to persons or property.

Seen a pink turban and moustache somewhere?

If you think you did, you can help the police by calling the police hotline on 1800 255 0000 or visit www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

In the meantime, here’s a footage of how everyone just crowds around as police conducts their investigations:

@ChannelNewsAsia do y’all know what’s happening at Boon Lay MRT? pic.twitter.com/VQkursIQ7r

— Noel Sebastian (@noelsebastian13) July 28, 2018

So if you’re still complaining about the high cost of living here in Singapore, here’s a reminder of why a plate of chicken rice is so expensive: it’s so safe, people kind of gets complacent.