Three youths were allegedly caught on CCTV illegally fishing and climbing over a fence to retrieve their catch at Pasir Ris fishing pond in the early hours of Nov 20, leading to a police report.
The incident occurred at about 3am at D’Best Fishing in Pasir Ris Town Park, which is touted on its website as “Singapore’s largest 24-hour saltwater pay pond”.
Mr Huang (transliterated), 41, the general manager of the fishing pond, told Shin Min Daily News that CCTV cameras installed around the pond captured the trio casting bait into the water from outside the fence after the facility had closed for the night.
“The pond closes at 6pm, and our staff cover the surface with a protective net. But they threw their bait through the gaps. After hooking fish, they climbed over the fence to grab them. They stole two to three fish in total,” he claimed.
CCTV footage uploaded on the company’s Facebook page shows a boy in a black T-shirt casting his line. Soon after, he catches a fish, which gets stuck beneath the net. Another boy is seen climbing over the fence, stepping on buckets to get to the net.
Lifting it, he retrieves the fish and tosses it onto the grass, while a girl in a grey shirt watches nearby.
The two boys later switched roles, with two fish placed into a plastic bag carried by the girl. The boy in the black shirt casts the line once more, waiting for a fish to bite as the clip ends.
Mr Huang told Shin Min that the pond is stocked with species such as grouper, red snapper, golden snapper, and barramundi, and that the stolen fish were worth more than $50 in total.
