SINGAPORE – The landed property near MacRitchie Reservoir targeted by a balaclava-wearing intruder was not the only one broken into, with police revealing that a similar incident had occurred just days earlier.
a man broke into a home in Marigold Drive
but left when an occupant screamed. Police said a separate incident had occurred just days earlier.
“On Feb 17, at about 7.50pm, the police received a call for assistance at a residential estate along Taman Permata.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that an individual had allegedly entered a residential premise without permission and had left prior to police’s arrival,” a spokesman said, adding that efforts to trace the suspect are under way.
The two homes are about a four-minute drive from each other near Upper Thomson Road and next to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.
Amanda (not her real name), who has lived in her Marigold Drive home for 40 years, said the balaclava-wearing intruder who broke into her house was brazen because there were obvious signs that people were in.
Speaking to The Straits Times in her home on Feb 23, she said some of the lights in her multi-storey house, which backs onto a forested area in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, were turned on at the time.
She said her 34-year-old female tenant, who rents a room on the ground floor at the front of the house, was the one who spotted the intruder.
Amanda, who was on the second floor at the time with her helper, said she heard a scream from her tenant at around 9.30pm.
She rushed down to find her tenant pointing towards the back of the house, which leads to the forest. The backdoor was ajar, with signs that it had been tampered with.
Amanda said the man, who was wearing a black balaclava, hat, long-sleeved shirt and trousers, did not get anything from her home.
“They are getting so daring. You typically hear of burglars trying to pick houses that are empty to avoid home owners. But the lights in my house were turned on and he still decided to target us,” she added.
